President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu is conspicuously missing as the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) is getting under way in New York City today. It is the third consecutive year that Tinubu is not leading Nigeria’s delegation to the number one assembly of world leaders, raising questions as to why he is avoiding USA.
Nearly 130 heads of state and government attend the annual week-long event to deliver a message from their nation to the world
US President Donald Trump is one of the first due to speak, with France’s Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also on today’s schedule
Elsewhere, Trump will have his first face-to-face meeting with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has said he hopes the pair can find “common ground”
Some leaders have already been pictured having talks, with Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seen together last night. Earlier, Burnham walked through Central Park with Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez
Opposition leader and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised eyebrows over Tinubu’s absence at UNGA, claiming that it might not be unrelated to a drugs forfeiture case against the former Lagos state Governor.
Atiku, who is keen to unseat Tinubu in January’s presidential election, said by missing out from a global forum like UNGA that Tinubu is shortchanging Nigeria of all the benefits and investment gains that could have accrued to Nigeria if the president was on ground directing the affairs of things in New York.
