Former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to travel to Europe for a three-week vacation, arguing that the timing exposes a troubling gap in political leadership. Reacting to the trip in a post on X on Sunday, Atiku said Nigeria […] The post Tinubu traveled to Europe for leave when his ‘roof is burning’ at home — Atiku appeared first on Tribune Online .
Former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to travel to Europe for a three-week vacation, arguing that the timing exposes a troubling gap in political leadership.
Reacting to the trip in a post on X on Sunday, Atiku said Nigeria was not facing a constitutional vacuum, but a clear vacuum of political leadership.
He noted that although he had lived and travelled abroad extensively himself, there was a fundamental difference between a private citizen’s travels and the responsibilities that come with occupying the office of President.
He questioned the President’s choice to spend three weeks away in Europe.
According to him, leadership goes beyond the constitutional right to hold office; it requires the judgment to recognise when a country needs its leader present.
He illustrated this with the image of a father who might travel when all is well, but would not reach for his suitcase and head to the airport if his house were on fire with his family trapped inside.
He argued this was the core of his objection — not that a president should never rest or travel, but that Nigeria was in crisis, and the President had opted for a boarding pass instead of addressing the fire at home.
He wrote, “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.
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“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.
“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. -AA.”
The former vice president’s comments came shortly after Tinubu departed Abuja on Sunday for the European leg of his 2026 annual leave, in a send-off attended by government officials, security personnel and military officers. Footage of the departure showed the President arriving at the airport in a motorcade, walking with aides and boarding his aircraft as officials saluted and colleagues waved him off.
According to the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu will begin his trip in London before returning to Nigeria to join campaign activities ahead of the January 2027 election.
Speaking to journalists at the airport, Presidential Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, defended the timing of the break, describing it as an opportunity for the President to recover after months of demanding engagement with state affairs.
He explained that Tinubu had spent the past six to seven months immersed in major decisions affecting security, the economy and other areas of governance, noting that these changes had been significant even as the 2027 election campaign season begins.
