Nigeria: G20 Summit – Tinubu’s Trip to India Was Global Picnic, Says Atiku’s Aide

Daniel Bwala, a legal practitioner and spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign during the 2023 presidential election, has condemned the recent foreign trips by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying the president went for photos with foreign leaders.

Bwala while speaking with ARISE TV on issues around politics, especially the recent G20 Summit attended by the president, said the Tinubu government was lacking in strong domestic policies.

He added that the president embarked on ’empty’ foreign trips to make up for the deficiencies.

He said, “The 100 days of Tinubu’s administration has been uneventful, in my opinion. Like I’ve said, I wish him well, but there is the pledge that ‘I pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful loyal and honest,’ so we have to be honest to ourselves and honest to our leaders. And that’s patriotic action so that our leaders could learn from our opinions on the way they are governing us.

“Now, what this government terms as achievement can be seen by all as an exaggeration. Because in the last six years, if you asked a Nigerian, they would tell you that nothing has significantly changed in their lives. And you can look at every fabric of our society. There’s nothing that happened in the education sector. Look at the labour, they are still trying to negotiate basic salary and other working conditions.

“So because domestically, there’s nothing to show as a progressive result of what they are doing, they’ve decided to embark on foreign trips to see if they can garner some accolades.

“There are two things I want to mention, the first one was the trip to India. And with the greatest respect, what I will say can be verified. The trip to India was basically a global picnic. The G20 Summit was a global picnic where members come to deliberate on global issues.

“But if it was successful, there would be a joint statement on what exactly they intend to do or what they’ve agreed on. But because of the absence of China and Russia, they haven’t been able to come up with any clear-cut direction on what to do. That’s why the joint statement was criticized by global leaders as watery.

“But that’s even by the way. The president was invited as a member and African Union celebrated the fact that they’ve joined as permanent members. But it doesn’t mean anything because the entire African Union has only one vote. So just two other countries can wipe out whatever opinion the AU has.

“But Tinubu left the country four days before the event for reasons best known to him. If there were more important issues for him to attend to within the country there would have been no need for him to be in India.”