Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart Abuja today for the United Kingdom to begin a two-week vacation, as part of his annual leave.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Bayo Onanuga on Wednesday, said he will use the two weeks as a working vacation, and a retreat to reflect on his administration’s economic reforms.

He will return to the country after the leave expires.

The president had celebrated Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day anniversary with a speech, where he said the Federal Government would introduce a 30-day confab aimed at including the youths in his administration.

The President said the modalities of the confab and selection of delegates would be designed as soon as possible.

“As we work to overcome the challenges of the day, we remain mindful of the next generation as we seek to galvanise their creative energy towards a better future,” he said during his second Independence Day Anniversary Broadcast since he assumed office on May 29, 2023.

“We lead today with the future we wish to bequeath to our children in focus, recognising that we cannot design a future that belongs to them without making them its architects.

“Considering this, I am pleased to announce the gathering of a National Youth Conference. This conference will be a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 per cent of our population.

“It will provoke meaningful dialogue and empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building. By ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, we are creating a pathway for a brighter tomorrow.

President Bola Tinubu has announced a 30-day confab for Nigerian youths to discuss challenges confronting them.

Tinubu made this announcement on Tuesday during his 64th Independence Day Anniversary Broadcast.

Details shortly…

A looming cabinet reshuffle has sparked intense lobbying among ministers and their political godfathers, as President Bola Tinubu prepares to sack underperforming appointees.

Sources reveal that ministers have been frantically calling their godfathers to influence the President, while others have sought the intervention of the President’s allies and associates, including Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila.

Leading reporters learnt that the President has been under immense pressure from political godfathers and ministers who fear being dropped from the cabinet.

To alleviate this pressure, the Chief of Staff advised President Tinubu to take a brief break in the United Kingdom after the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in China.

“The President needed some time off to clear his head and make decisions without external influence,” a presidential aide disclosed.

Ministers and their godfathers have pulled out all the stops to save their jobs. Some have resorted to media campaigns, touting their achievements and highlighting their contributions to the administration.

Others have taken to social media, attempting to garner public support and demonstrate their commitment to the President’s agenda.

A source stated, “Since reports filtered out that the President would soon reshuffle his cabinet, he has been under immense pressure from political godfathers and ministers who are afraid that they may be dropped from the cabinet.

“Due to the intense pressure, the CoS had to advise the President to take some days off in the United Kingdom after concluding the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in China two weeks ago.

“Remember that for some days, Nigerians did not know about Tinubu’s whereabouts. After pictures of his meeting with King Charles surfaced online, people started speculating that he went to London for medical checks. The fact is that he was advised to spend a few days to allow the pressure and lobbying to subside.

“Anyway, it is not unusual for politicians to lobby on behalf of their wards but Nigerians are not satisfied with the performance of many of the ministers and the President would have no choice but to let them go. If you are not performing, you have to go, regardless of who your godfather is,” he added.

It is learnt that the cabinet shake-up will be based on empirical evidence from performance reports.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga on Wednesday confirmed that President Tinubu had stated his intent to rejig his cabinet.

He added, “The President has given an order to all his ministers at the last Federal Executive Council meeting to go out there and speak about the activities of his administration.

“Some of them have been media shy, television shy, radio shy, and he wants them to overcome all that and go out there and speak about what they have been doing because the feeling out there is that government is not doing enough and the government has been doing a lot. And it is up to them to go out there and blow their own trumpet. They should go out there and talk about what their ministries have been doing.”

The Central Delivery Coordination Unit, headed by Hadiza Bala-Usman, has been tracking and assessing ministerial performance. The unit received performance reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries.

“The assessment reports will be a product of a joint effort of the ministers, citizens, and industry experts,” Bala-Usman had explained early in the administration.

President Tinubu had directed ministers to present their performance reports to Nigerians. “If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us,” he stated during his first anniversary.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and one of its largest economies, has now spent over 13 months without ambassadors in 109 diplomatic missions worldwide.

The diplomatic vacuum has raised serious concerns about the country’s standing in the global arena and its capacity to navigate the increasingly complex international relations.

For more than a year, Nigeria has lacked formal representation at the highest levels of diplomacy, leaving the country at a disadvantage in engaging with global partners.

Following President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration, a reassessment of foreign policy led to the recall of 83 ambassadors; both career and non-career from their posts in September 2023, but the subsequent appointment of replacements has yet to occur.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, had said the ambassadors served at the president’s behest in their host nations and that it was the President’s “prerogative to send or recall them from any country.”

The envoys were instructed to return to Nigeria by October 31, marking a shift in diplomatic strategy and suggesting that the government was looking to realign its foreign engagements to better serve national interests.

However, more than a year later, the anticipated appointments of new ambassadors have yet to materialise, creating a diplomatic vacuum that has left the country’s missions leaderless and its voice on the global stage weakened.

This prolonged diplomatic vacuum echoes the delays seen during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which took 17 to 20 months to establish ambassadorial positions.

The implications of this prolonged absence are far-reaching. At a time when global diplomacy is becoming more intricate, Nigeria finds itself without the ability to fully engage with other nations or participate in critical trade and security negotiations.

Ambassadors play an indispensable role in representing their country’s interests abroad, managing bilateral relations, and serving as key players in multilateral organisations. Their absence means missed opportunities and a weakening of Nigeria’s influence in global affairs.

While the Federal Government has made some progress by appointing 12 consuls-general and five chargés d’affaires to represent the country in 14 countries in April 2024, these appointments fall short of filling the gap.

Consuls-general and chargés d’affaires can handle routine administrative duties and oversee the day-to-day operations of an embassy, but they do not possess the authority or diplomatic weight to engage at the highest levels, such as with heads of state or critical international negotiations.

The absence of full ambassadors is a glaring omission at a time when Nigeria needs strong representation more than ever.

This diplomatic void is not just a procedural issue; it has real consequences for the nation’s global influence, its ability to secure international investments, and its role in shaping policies that affect the African continent and beyond.

On May 28, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the situation, citing a lack of funds as the primary reason for the delay in appointing new ambassadors.

Few days later, the MFA’s spokesperson, Amb. Eche Abu-Ode, said any new ambassadorial appointments will depend on budget allocations. “I guess the funds may be included in the supplementary budget, but for now, there is no clear way forward without funds,” Abu-Ode stated.

The admission highlights a troubling intersection between diplomacy and economics, with financial constraints halting Nigeria’s global engagement.

The issue of funding underscores deeper problems within Nigeria’s diplomatic apparatus. With no clear timeline for when the budgetary issues will be resolved, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is left in a holding pattern.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s international partners may interpret this prolonged inaction as a sign of instability or disinterest in global affairs.

This perception can be damaging, particularly for a country that relies on foreign investments and international partnerships to fuel its economic growth.