Politics

Five Days Missing: ADC Demands Accountability from Tinubu

Published by Tope Fakinlede on July 13th, 2025.

Five Days Missing: ADC Demands Accountability from Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) extends a cautious welcome to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu following his return to Nigeria—five days after the conclusion of the 2025 BRICS Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

While world leaders from across the globe returned to their countries promptly after the summit ended on Monday, July 7, and resumed official duties with clarity and briefings, our own president reappeared quietly in Abuja in the early hours of Sunday, July 13—without a statement, without a public address, and with no explanation for the delay.

Five days may seem brief to some, but in a country grappling with serious national insecurity, economic distress, and deepening public hardship, that silence is deafening. The President was not on personal vacation; he was representing Nigeria on official business. The Nigerian people deserve to know where he was and what accounted for his absence in such a critical period.

Unfortunately, this lack of transparency around the President’s foreign trips is not an isolated case—it’s becoming an unsettling pattern.

In January 2024, a supposed “private visit” to France turned into a two-week absence, with no photographs, no statements, and no official updates.

In April 2024, following visits to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia for the World Economic Forum, the President remained out of public view until May 8—nine days after the event concluded.

Again, in August 2024, President Tinubu travelled to China via Dubai. After engagements in Beijing, he disappeared from public view on September 5, only to be seen again in London on September 11—six days with no communication, no official handover, and no explanation.

Even during another trip to Paris in the same month, he remained out of touch for three days before quietly returning home—again, without any public accountability.

These repeated absences, wrapped in silence, have done nothing but fuel speculation, encourage rumours, and cast doubt on the administration’s respect for democratic norms and transparency. Worse still, such episodes damage Nigeria’s global image, suggesting instability and disconnection at the highest level of leadership.

We urge Nigerians to pay attention. A president who disappears without explanation cannot be trusted to manage the critical challenges our country faces. A leader who avoids accountability cannot credibly ask Nigerians to endure sacrifices. And a governing party that justifies these vanishing acts only exposes its disregard for the very people it claims to serve.

Signed:

Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi

Interim National Publicity Secretary,

African Democratic Congress (ADC)

Spokesman, Coalit

ion for Democratic Renewal