Eric Patrick
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has lambasted President Bola Tinubu over his visit to Saint Lucia, describing it as ill-timed and insensitive to the current hardship and insecurity ravaging the country.
First News reported on Sunday that Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on his X handle on June 29, 2025, disclosed that the President arrived Saint Lucia on Saturday for a state visit as part of efforts to deepen Nigeria’s engagement with the Caribbean nations and strengthen South-South cooperation.
Onanuga noted that at the end of the visit to the island nation, Tinubu would fly to Brazil to participate in the 17th Summit of BRICS in Rio de Janeiro.
However, Obi, in a statement on Saturday night titled “No, Mr President, This is Not the Time for Holidaying, read, “Dear Nigerians, I am struggling with my senses to understand what is happening to governance in this country.
“I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President, on whose table the buck stops in this country, with all the myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance, would contemplate a leisure trip at this time.
“What I have seen and witnessed in the last two years has left me in shock about poor governance delivery and apparent channelling of energy into politics and satisfaction of the elites, while the masses in our midst are languishing in want.
“In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war. Without any twilight, Nigeria ranks among the most insecure places in the world.
“Nigerians are hungrier, and most people do not know where their next meal will come from.
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“With such a gory picture of one’s country, you can imagine my bewilderment when I saw a news release from the Presidency announcing that President Bola Tinubu is departing Nigeria today (Saturday) for a visit to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean.
“This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger state where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster.
“I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens.
“The other state in crisis where over two hundred lives were murdered, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi the state capital for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack.”
The one-time Anambra State governor cited the President’s absence from disaster-hit areas such as Minna, Niger State, where floods reportedly claimed over 200 lives and left hundreds missing as evidence of failed leadership.
Obi also criticised Tinubu’s visit to Benue State, describing it as a political jamboree and not a condolence visit.