President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria has received criticism for skipping a live economic session of the current world leaders’ summit in Paris.
Mr. Tinubu requested that Nigerian ambassador to Nigeria stand in for him. It was not immediately clear why Mr. Tinubu was unable to take the stage alone, especially since his office had earlier declared he would be in France for the summit and a discussion on Africa’s economic future. Nigerian ambassador Adamu Ahmed who took the stage alongside David Craig, co-chair of the task force on nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD), Mark Carney of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Mary Schapiro of global public policy at Bloomberg, Sabine Mauderer of the Network for Greening the Financial System, and UN special envoy Catherine Mckenna.
Although it was unclear why Mr. Tinubu was unable to speak on stage alone, especially considering that his office had previously announced he would be in France for the summit and a discussion about Africa’s economic prospects, news of his “no show” has sparked criticism among Nigerian internet users, many of whom recalled how Mr. Tinubu had shied away from taking questions at Chatham House during his campaign.
Twitter user, @Irunnia_, said, “He did this at Chatham house but Agbado people said it meant he trust his people. Do u know how it looks when your president can’t even speak when he should because his old brains could go blank? This is what you get when you vote in a man who should be in an old people’s home.”
@MichaelEmiabata noted that “this incident has proven that Bola Tinubu is not fit to be the president of Nigeria. Where it matters the most for our nation, he could not perform. This is a big shame.”
A Twitter user, @ajaGunSEgun_, said, “It’s only three weeks into his administration. Nobody has yet seen any material impact of his policies on anyone’s lives, but some brown nosers are already declaring Bola Tinubu to be the best president Nigeria has ever had. This’s the best president asking another official to represent him when it matters most. Apparently, this is exactly the meaning of “Bala blue, Blue bulaba.”
@nosakhare_elvis warned of more potential scandals from the Nigerian leader, tweeting, “We have not seen anything yet. His governance will be characterized by a lot of proxy appearances and representations. How can someone who cannot control his reflexes represent us? The mob will soon come after you guys now the same way they have been after Rufai. God help us.”
@pdauda felt that Mr. Tinubu should have stayed back in Nigeria.
“Sir Gacity traveled to Paris 2 days before the summit then failed to “climb” the stage. Would’ve been prudent to stay back, connect via Zoom, and ask Gbaj and Dele to answer and address the panel innit?” stated the Twitter user. “Dodged debates back home and think you can use Obgoju internationally abi?”
Others, on the other hand, defended Mr. Tinubu’s “no-show” by arguing that he was merely a delegation in charge. Some of them said that the president had authorized Mr. Ahmed to represent him at subsequent meetings by speaking in their place. (More remarks can be found here.)
The ceremony was to be Mr. Tinubu’s first since taking office on May 29. He was due to join the other participants on stage at 6:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. in Nigeria), according to his aides, and he was ready to go.
