By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
ANXIETIES that dominated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s London trip were chiefly about his ability to go through the public events, especially, without falling, tripping, stumbling, mis-stepping, as was the case in Turkey in January. Tinubu and his minders could not have thrown the tumbles in Turkey out of their minds.
Tinubu had a troubled mind going to London. This had nothing to do with Turkey. Whatever is left of his humanity tormented his decision to make an unnecessary trip with his charge as Commander-in-Chief being challenged by terrorists who had chosen the past three weeks to unleash attacks on parts of Borno State, including Maiduguri, the capital.
Attacks were not only on villages for food, new wives or to beef up their human shields, in case they were attacked. They attacked military camps, posts from which we could initiate attacks.
Soldiers were killed. Their commanders were killed. Military wares were carted away or destroyed. Accounts of these events have been rendered off-handedly.
The military casualty figure in one attack was quoted as more than 100 soldiers. The Commander-in-Chief said nothing. The commanders also said nothing.
No longer does the military go after its attackers. There is no anger, no matter how feeble, in the voice of the Commander-in-Chief when he discusses terrorism and banditry. Hundreds of Nigerians who lose their lives across the country no longer elicit any reaction from Tinubu whose major and minor interests coalesce on his re-election.
Tinubu is unfeeling unless where issues that could affect his re-election bid are involved. With over 100 people dead from suicide-bombings in Maiduguri, Tinubu practically step on the bodies as he headed for his date in London, his wife in tow and a plane full of supporters to welcome the President to London. They were back on time to welcome him on his return to Lagos.
A Nigeria that is running on loans paid for the jamboree, one more pointer to Tinubu’s dedication to wasting public funds. How won’t he?
This President is running two budgets concurrently, 2024 and 2025. Soon he will add the 2026 budget to them.
He will spend the next few months hyping a trip that produced an “investment” of about N1 trillion that Nigeria would borrow from British banks. More loans! What else is Tinubu about?
Transactions of that size could have been assigned to the High Commission in London and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. But Tinubu must be seen as doing something.
The casual instruction that the Service Chiefs should move to Maiduguri immediately, moments before departing, and the announcement that more ammunitions have been released sound at best comical.
Parts of Nigeria have been under attacks. Casualty figures were rising. Where was the Commander-in-Chief?
All that was on the Commander-in-Chief’s mind was a meeting with King Charles III. A Commander-in-Chief should be heading home if abroad and learnt his country was under attack.
Not our Tinubu. Nothing would stop that trip.
While mass burials from attacks by bandits and terrorists continue, a mass wedding involving 10 sons and daughters of the Minister of State for Defence Bello Matawalle that held in Abuja in February is the type of priorities Tinubu’s government and its officials promote.
Tinubu needed the trip to assure the British that he would not choose Paris completely over London. That miserly N1 trillion “investment” is a statement on the flagging British economy and the withering influence of Charle’s kingdom. Tinubu is happy that he has France and Britain to lean on for his re-election.
The certainty from meeting the King, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London and guaranteed lunch dates and medicals in Paris are very important to Tinubu’s survival in power.
Both countries are glad to use Tinubu. He gladly obliges them. The British want to restart economic exploitation of Nigeria with feet firmly planted in the modernisation and management of the only two working ports that control the rev and nerve of Nigeria’s import-dependent economy.
For the French, the main interests are in the solid minerals of ravaged North-West and elsewhere they are found. France needs replacement for its former colonies of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and Chad that have become unreliable sources of solid minerals after they kicked the French out.
Tinubu believes he has kept the Americans in check with the lobbyists he hired to convince those in Washington who think there are insecurity issues in Nigeria that Tinubu loves Christians. Notably, his wife is a pastor as Donald Trump had acknowledged. Incertitude about Tinubu’s education and what he was doing in Chicago are chilled matters now.
And Tinubu is learning to serve the sensibilities of each of his benefactors well. He did not stop over in Paris during this trip. Unbelievable.
Most importantly, he did not fall. There were anxious moments though – the television shot that created the impression that Tinubu would walk a mile to get to #10 Downing Street, office, and residence of the British Prime Minister who was at the door to receive him – tasked concerns. Will the President get there, incident-free?
Tinubu did not help matters. He appeared to be counting his steps, admiring the surroundings, and perhaps rehearsing his remarks for the vaunted meeting for a trip that was majorly about photo opportunities to impress the next set of Nigerians he will send bags of rice to, with the importance of the Tinubu who meets King and Queen of England.
New bags of Tinubu rice could come branded with the pictures from England.
We should be happy for our President for pulling this visit off. We must thank King Charles III, who discarded royal protocols, to tuck Tinubu’s arm into his, ensuring that no misstep fashioned against Tinubu prospered.
If you insist on thanking the King, Tinubu props say the King was extending courtesy to an elder. Which elder? Is Tinubu, 73, now older than Charles, 77?
Tinubu has consistently failed to manage the menace of bandits and terrorists. He is comfortable enough with the killing of Nigerians, some of them security agents, as long as he is President.
All that matters to Tinubu is winning the next election. Our lives are more important than the next election. Tinubu does not think our lives matter. It is up to us to protest Tinubu’s minimalisation if Nigerian lives.
Finally…
AND in two days of talks and tuck ins, no mention was made of former three-time Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who has been jailed in London since 5 May 2023. The Ministers of Justice, and Foreign Affairs reportedly made a request to the British government in November 2025 for Ekweremadu to serve his remaining sentence in Nigeria. The British rejected the request.
THE Confederation of African Football, CAF, is committed to crash whatever it has left of African football or leave it in adequate chaos to make a zombie of it. How will CAF strip Senegal of its 2025 AFCON title based on Articles 82 and 84 of the competition’s regulations, two months after the contest?
Article 82 states that if a team leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the referee’s permission, they are considered to have lost the game. Was it Senegal’s fault that the referee re-started the game if Senegal was in violation?
Morocco is such an unsportsmanlike nation, and it showed throughout the competition, harassing opponents, removing towels of goalkeepers and the hostility of the home fans was top-notch.
Eighteen Senegalese football fans are in prison in Morocco serving 3 to 12 months sentences following clashes at the January 2026 AFCON final in Rabat. The fans were found guilty of hooliganism.
OUR Police and other security agencies should protect the opposition political parties. APC has taken an interest in disrupting their activities. If everyone behaves like APC we are on a sure path to a lot of confusion, and crises.
HAPPY Eid Al-Fitr to our Muslim brothers and sisters.
ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues
