Nigeria is burning but TINUBU chose boarding pass over fire extinguisher - ATIKU

Monday, August 31, 2026 -  The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Tinubu for embarking on a three-week vacation when Nigeria is currently ‘burning’. 

The Presidency had on Sunday, August 30, announced that the President departed Abuja for Europe to begin a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave.

Reacting via social media, Atiku knocked the President for travelling when Nigerians are currently grappling with high petrol prices, food insecurity, rising transport fares and worsening insecurity.

He likened President Tinubu’s decision to travel at the moment to a father leaving his home while his family is trapped inside a burning building 

Read his post below

“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.

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.