Nigeria, Sunday 27 September 2026
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, has questioned the whereabouts of President Bola Tinubu after Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama addressed the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In a post on X on Sunday, Mr Obi praised Mr Mahama’s speech as remarkable and said it had drawn commendation for both its substance and the leadership it projected. He presented the Ghanaian address as an example of what can be achieved when competence, capacity, compassion, commitment and character are placed at the service of a country.
He then turned the contrast on Nigeria. Africa’s most populous nation, he said, has more than 200 million people and is larger than Ghana, yet its president has been absent from the world body for three consecutive assemblies. Mr Obi argued that Nigeria’s leader ought to represent the country and offer leadership for Africa on the international stage, particularly while the nation faces serious problems at home and abroad.
Vice President Kashim Shettima was in New York and delivered Nigeria’s national statement. Mr Obi said that presence did not settle the central question. “Although our Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was present, the question remains: Where is the President?” he wrote. He added that Nigerians should continue to pray for Mr Tinubu’s return and for leadership capable of confronting the country’s difficulties.
The general debate of the 81st session ran from 22 to 26 September and again on 28 September, under the theme “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.” Mr Mahama spoke on 24 September. Ghanaian reports said he called for a fairer global order, Security Council reform, cheaper finance for developing countries and reparatory justice linked to the transatlantic slave trade, while also setting out Ghana’s domestic recovery programme.
Nigeria spoke on the same day through Mr Shettima. The statement, issued in President Tinubu’s name, restated Abuja’s demand for permanent African seats on the Security Council, including the full rights of permanent membership.
Mr Tinubu last attended the assembly in person in 2023. Mr Shettima represented him in 2024 and 2025, and has done so again this year. That sequence has become a point of political attack as campaigning for the 2027 elections gathers pace.
The presidency has said there is nothing unusual about the arrangement. Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, argued that many countries send vice presidents or foreign ministers and that Nigeria kept its front row place. Officials also dismissed claims that Mr Tinubu faces any bar on entering the United States, noting that he attended the 2023 assembly in New York and later travelled to Los Angeles.
The official account of the president’s absence is leave, not a diplomatic snub. Mr Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August for what the presidency called a working vacation, first in London and then in Paris, where he met President Emmanuel Macron. The trip was later extended. Sources told TheCable on Sunday that a planned weekend return had been put back, with arrival now expected on Tuesday.
The change of plan sits awkwardly beside earlier signals from New York. In July Mr Ibrahim said the president had agreed to attend and that a seat had been arranged near the United States president. Former vice president Atiku Abubakar seized on that point this week, saying a seat had been secured but the president had “disappeared.” Mr Atiku called three successive absences a pattern that required a proper explanation.
Mr Obi did not allege a legal obstacle. His post was framed as a test of presence and of Africa’s claim to leadership. Ghana, a smaller country by population, sent its head of state. Nigeria, he suggested, sent a deputy and left the larger question unanswered.
Whether the criticism lands will depend less on protocol than on politics at home. Mr Shettima can read a national statement. He cannot, in the view of the president’s opponents, replace the authority of the man elected to occupy Nigeria’s seat. The presidency replies that government continues, that the vice president carries a full mandate, and that a head of state’s diary is not a scoreboard for opposition candidates.
By A.Ikechukwu
