Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has questioned whether President Bola Tinubu’s controversial drug-forfeiture history in the United States is behind his repeated absence from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Tinubu will again stay away from the annual gathering of world leaders, with Vice President Kashim Shettima already mandated to lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 81st UNGA.
It will be the third consecutive year Tinubu has skipped the high-level session, after Shettima represented him in 2024 and 2025.
The development has revived questions about Tinubu’s relationship with the US, particularly the 1993 forfeiture case in Chicago involving $460,000 held in an account in his name.
In the case, the US government alleged that the funds represented proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were connected to financial transactions prohibited under US law.
The money was subsequently forfeited to the US government. The proceeding was a civil asset-forfeiture case, not a criminal conviction of Tinubu for drug trafficking.
Atiku, however, wants the Presidency to explain whether that history has anything to do with Tinubu’s repeated decision to stay away from New York.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said three consecutive absences could no longer be dismissed as routine delegation.
He particularly questioned why Tinubu would miss the UNGA despite Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, previously saying that arrangements had been made for the President to sit close to US President Donald Trump.
“The seat was secured, but the President disappeared,” Atiku said.
He then directly linked Tinubu’s absence to the US controversy.
“Is Tinubu afraid that he could become Donald Trump’s next Nicolás Maduro?”
“Is he haunted by the controversies surrounding his American academic claims and his documented drug-related forfeiture history?”
Atiku stressed that he was not claiming Tinubu was legally barred from entering the United States.
“We are not asserting that Tinubu is legally prohibited from entering the United States. The Presidency has announced no such restriction. But if no legal, diplomatic, medical or personal impediment exists, why has Tinubu repeatedly avoided the UNGA since 2024?”
He added: “Nigerians are therefore entitled to ask whether Tinubu’s three consecutive UNGA absences have anything to do with this documented American history.”
Atiku also took aim at the reported arrangement for Tinubu to sit near Trump, asking why the President would miss an opportunity that had been publicly presented as diplomatically significant.
“If proximity to President Trump was considered such a diplomatic achievement, why did Tinubu abandon the opportunity and send his deputy?” he asked.
The former vice president further questioned reports that the Tinubu administration had committed up to $9 million to American lobbyists, asking why Nigeria would spend millions trying to improve its standing in Washington while the President repeatedly stayed away from New York.
“What exactly did Nigerians purchase with that money? Why spend millions of dollars lobbying Washington while Tinubu repeatedly stays away from New York?” Atiku asked.
He also accused the President of allowing what he described as his “American baggage” to affect Nigeria’s diplomatic interests.
“Nigeria is bigger than Bola. Our diplomatic influence, economic interests and international reputation must not be subordinated to Tinubu’s American baggage,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Presidency has rejected suggestions that Tinubu’s absence from the UNGA is connected to any problem with the United States.
Presidential aide Ademola Osodi said Tinubu had previously travelled to the US and dismissed the suggestion that the President was unable to visit America, describing it as an old political argument.
The Presidency said Shettima would deliver Nigeria’s national statement at the 81st UNGA and participate in bilateral and high-level meetings on Nigeria’s behalf.
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