By Ogbobe Chidera Stanley
At a moment when Nigeria should be witnessing resolute leadership and visible command, the nation is instead confronted with an unsettling vacuum.
While foreign powers posture about combating terrorism on Nigerian soil, the President of Nigeria reportedly boards a private jet and fades into obscurity, resurfacing nowhere and answering to no one. No official destination.
No transparent explanation. Just absence. How does a sitting president depart the country for an undisclosed location while the nation he swore to defend is under siege? How does the commander in chief retreat into silence at a time when reports circulate of foreign missiles striking Nigerian territory, allegedly in places such as Sokoto, without so much as a sober address to the people?
If this conduct does not amount to presidential truancy, one is compelled to ask what definition would suffice. Nigeria is not in a season of calm. Our sovereignty is under strain.
Our security architecture appears compromised. Citizens are burdened with fear, confusion, and unanswered questions. In such times, leadership demands more than ceremonial authority. It requires presence, candor, and moral courage.
A president must stand before his people. He must explain unfolding realities. He must affirm that the nation remains firmly under its own command. Instead, Nigerians are left to grope in the dark. They are forced to piece together fragments of information from unofficial sources.
There has been no authoritative explanation of how foreign military actions occurred within our borders. There has been no reassurance that Nigeria’s sovereignty remains intact. There has been no clear signal that the government is firmly in control of events.
This persistent silence is not merely troubling. It is destabilizing. A nation cannot be governed by absence. Confidence cannot be sustained by secrecy. The social contract between the governed and the governor demands visibility. It demands accountability.
It demands respect. So the question remains unavoidable and painfully loud. Where is President Tinubu? Nigeria has endured too much neglect. Nigeria has suffered too many broken promises. Nigeria has witnessed too many leadership failures to accept this level of detachment as normal. We deserve better.
We deserve transparency. We deserve a leader who shows up when it matters most. And come 2027, we must all join hands to democratically send the APC government packing. We must reclaim the future of our country.
This is supposed to be our commander in chief. Yet his whereabouts are unknown to the very people he leads.
