‘He Can Not Feel The Pain’ – Atiku Condemns Tinubu’s Decision To Embark On Leave

Former Vice President of Nigeria and 2027 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has queried the decision of President Bola Tinubu to embark on leave at the same time the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, is also not in the country.

Atiku said the development has created a vacuum of political leadership and may graduate to a constitutional vacuum.

Naija News reports that while President Tinubu embarked on a three-week leave, Shettima left Abuja for Luanda, Angola, where he will represent the President at the 21st Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.

However, Atiku, in a statement on Sunday, said the timing of the President’s trip is questionable.

He argued that Tinubu embarked on a luxury journey and left Nigerians to continue battling increasing food prices, rising transport fares and other challenges.

“Nigeria may not be facing a constitutional vacuum today, but there is a disturbing vacuum of political leadership.

“I have travelled, lived and spent time abroad, and I have never pretended otherwise. But there is a fundamental difference between the travels of a private citizen and the responsibility of the sitting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Consider what Bola Tinubu is leaving behind. Petrol priced beyond the reach of ordinary people. Families rationing food. Transport fares that have turned a journey to one’s own village into a luxury. Insecurity that buries Nigerians week after week. And in the middle of all this, President Tinubu has packed his bags for three weeks in Europe.

“The Vice President is abroad on official duty. That makes the President’s decision even more difficult to understand. Leadership is not merely the constitutional right to occupy an office; it is the judgment to know when your country needs you at home.

“A father may travel when all is well. But when his roof is burning and his family is trapped inside, he does not pick up his suitcase and head for the airport,” Atiku stated.

He said the timing of the President’s leave shows he doesn’t feel the people’s pain.

“That is the issue here. It is not that a President must never rest or travel. It is that Nigeria is burning, and the President has chosen a boarding pass over the fire extinguisher.

“Millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne. The people can barely afford to move, but the President keeps moving.

“A government that cannot feel the pain it inflicts will never summon the will to end it.

“Tinubu made Nigeria expensive. I will make Nigeria affordable again,” the NDC candidate said.