Former Vice-President and 2027 presidential flagbearer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, launched a scathing attack on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu following the President’s departure from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for a three-week working vacation in Europe.
​The State House announced the President’s trip on Sunday, August 30, 2026, via an official statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
Onanuga stated that the President left the capital city bound for London, United Kingdom, the first stop in a three-week retreat intended to offer time for reflection ahead of the official campaign season for the January 2027 general elections.
​Reacting to the development from his political office in Abuja, Atiku Abubakar issued a sharp counter-statement describing the timing of the President’s trip as insensitive to the socio-economic and security conditions currently confronting the nation.
​”Nigeria is burning,” Atiku declared. “Nigeria may not be facing a constitutional vacuum today, but there is a disturbing vacuum of political leadership. 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 further faulted the administration’s handling of petrol subsidy reforms and economic policies, arguing that ordinary citizens are bearing the brunt of high living costs.
​”Millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne,” the ADC standard-bearer added. “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. Tinubu made Nigeria expensive; I will make Nigeria affordable again.”
​The presidency has defended the retreat as a scheduled component of the President’s annual leave, confirming that Vice President Kashim Shettima remains on official duty, having departed Abuja for Luanda, Angola, to represent the President at the 21st Extraordinary Session of the African Union Assembly.
President Tinubu is expected to return to the country in mid-September to resume official engagements and intensify his re-election campaign.
