By Martins Oloja

‘The absentee president and the loud minister’

There are two images that define Nigeria as the world gathered at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2026.

Image One: President Emmanuel Macron of France – the host of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Paris – leaves Paris, flies to New York, takes the podium, and speaks for France. Image Two: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stays back in France on vacation, again. For the third year since 2024, Nigeria’s President is not at UNGA-2026. He has not been at the world’s biggest diplomatic table after his first year in 2023.

He sends his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, for the third time. The Vice President stood in for the President on Thursday September 24, 2026 in New York. This is not a small matter. It is a dangerous assumption. The assumption that it doesn’t matter. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has just reiterated that Africa must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. Nigeria – the most populous black nation on earth, the largest economy in Africa, the leader of ECOWAS, a country that led the fight against apartheid and peacekeeping in Liberia and Sierra Leone – is demanding that seat.

But how do you demand a seat at the big table when you are absent from the table for three years in a row?

Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, under bombardment, was in New York to address the world. The President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian under sanctions, was there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing wars at home and in Iran was there. Prime Ministers of small island states threatened by climate change disasters were there. Nigeria is missing.

And that road to New York 2026 will not forget this curious absence. Diplomats have long memories. Permanent membership is not given to absentee landlords.

This absence is a metaphor for the whole dangerous assumptions governing Nigeria today: That you can govern without being present. That you can win elections without talking to the people properly. That you can win an election and lose the country. And in Abuja, that assumption has a loud, reckless megaphone: The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. If President Tinubu’s danger is absence, Wike’s danger is presence – too much, too reckless, too anti-democratic. And the President tolerates him.

This article is a subtle warning: Tinubu and Wike must swallow their pride and vanity and talk directly to the people. They must apologise where necessary. They must deliver messages of hope, not dangerous assumptions that they can win elections without security and welfare of the people – the primary purpose of government under Section 14(2)(b) of our Constitution. Otherwise, they may win an election in 2027 and lose the country that did not vote for them.

‘The UNGA absence: A Symptom of a bigger disease’
The UN General Assembly is not tourism. It is where you state your diplomatic priorities. In 2025, Nigeria wanted to re-negotiate debt, attract climate finance, and push for Security Council reform. The President was in Europe. In 2026, with food inflation at over 37%, energy tariffs crippling small businesses, and insecurity in Benue, Plateau, Borno, and Zamfara, we needed to be at UNGA to make a case for investment, humanitarian support, and global solidarity. Again, the President was away in Europe. What message does this send? It tells foreign investors: Nigeria is not serious. It tells Nigerians: The President does not feel your pain at this perilous time.

It tells the UN: Nigeria does not care about multilateralism.

This is dangerous assumption number one: That optics don’t matter. That leadership is not physical and moral presence.

You cannot be in France when French President is in New York fighting for France. You diminish Nigeria. Yes, the Vice President was there again. The Vice President is competent. But sending the VP three times in three years devalues the presidency itself. The world knows that the President is the one who makes final deals in the corridors of UNGA – not the VP. Nigeria must be present to be taken seriously. Absence is not strategy. It is abdication.

‘WIKE – The Minister who thinks he is the President’s “Man Friday’
If Tinubu’s flaw is silence, Wike’s flaw is noise. Wike, FCT Minister is an appointee of the President. He acts like a co-President, a Prime Minister, a party chairman of all parties. In the last 60 days alone, Wike has committed three reckless anti-democratic statements that any President serious about democracy would have rebuked:
‘Reckless statement one: The confession of 2023 sabotage’. The other day, Wike incredibly exposed how he and his G-5 governors sabotaged Atiku Abubakar of the PDP in 2023 to pave way for Tinubu. Whether you like Atiku or not, this is an incredible self-indictment. You are a PDP chieftain who worked against your own party’s presidential candidate and you are boasting about it on national television? What is the moral lesson for young politicians? That treachery is a virtue? That anti-party activity is now state policy? And so far, President Tinubu has said nothing. Silence means endorsement.

Reckless statement two: ‘Should have given me Osun to win at all cost’
Earlier, Wike told the nation that if the President had wanted to win Osun State, he should have given him the job to win “at all cost.”

At all cost? What does that mean? In a democracy, “at all cost” is not a phrase. In a democracy, you win by persuasion, by performance, by manifestos. “At all cost” belongs to military garrisons, not to ballot boxes.

Osun state people heard that. They are proud people. You are telling them you would have captured them at all cost? That is an insult to their democratic intelligence. That is a reproach to Nigerians who employed Wike’s principal.

Reckless statement three: ‘Blocking Fubara’s second term’
The same Wike boasted he influenced a party he doesn’t belong to – the APC – to prevent Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State from having a second term. Think about it: A man who says he is PDP is deciding who gets ticket in APC in Rivers state. Where is party ideology? Where is internal democracy? This is godfatherism taken to a new, brazen level.
Reckless statement four: ‘Calling 30+ APC Governors lazy’. Wike has been calling all APC governors – more than thirty of them – lazy.

These are elected governors of the ruling party. You are an appointee calling elected men lazy? On what record? What have you built in FCT that is more than what all the 30 + governors have achieved? This is dangerous. You are alienating the very governors whose structures Tinubu needs to win 2027. Wike wants the ruling APC to take orders from him as leader of a ‘rainbow coalition’ just to woo opposition to support Tinubu? A man who has no structure outside Rivers and Abuja wants to be commander of APC governors? This is vanity. This is pride. This is anti-democratic. And again, that presidential tolerance has created a culture of impunity.

‘Security and welfare’: Today, what is the security and welfare situation?
Food inflation is a national emergency: A bag of rice that was N35, 000 in May 2023 is now N110, 000. Beans is beyond the reach of civil servants. A crate of eggs is N7, 500. The President’s own policy of fuel subsidy removal without cushioning has driven food transport cost 400% up. People are hungry. Not because they are lazy. Because policy has made them hungry.

‘Energy poverty’ Band A tariff is now N225 per kWh. Diesel is N2000 per litre. Small welders, barbers, cold-room owners have shut down. How do you create jobs when energy kills business? Insecurity: Benue is still bleeding. Plateau is still hurting. Zamfara has become a danger zone. Niger state is burning. Kwara state is still smarting. The North West is ungoverned in places. Farmers cannot go to farms in the food basket. North East has become a bad ulcer that defies medications applied to it. The entire South too has become uneasy. This is the state of the nation. But what are Tinubu and Wike talking about? 2027 permutations. Who will sabotage who. Who will win Osun at all cost. Who will stop Fubara.

This is dangerous assumption number two:
That Nigerians will vote for you even when they are hungry, in darkness, and insecure, just because you have a coalition of governors and ex-governors? History says otherwise. Goodluck Jonathan had governors in 2015 and lost. Incumbency without performance is an illusion.

‘Winning election and losing the country – The real danger’. Winning the election and losing the country happened in Kenya in 2007. It happened in Liberia. It means you use state capture to win votes, but the people you are supposed to govern no longer believe in you. So you rule over a territory, not a nation. Tinubu and Wike are on that road
if they continue like this.

The legitimacy deficit: If you win because Wike delivered Rivers at all cost, and because 30 governors were forced to align, but 80 million Nigerians who are hungry did not vote for you, you will have legal power but no moral authority. And without moral authority, you cannot implement painful reforms without consequences.

The youth factor: 70% of Nigeria is under 35. They don’t care about G-5. They care about data, food, light, jobs. They are not in APC or PDP. They are on TikTok, Instagram, X. They will not be wooed by Wike’s boisterous press conferences. They need hope. You are giving them threats.

The Wike liability: Wike once portrayed as “an untouchable genius” here, is becoming a liability, not an asset. Every time he insults governors, he creates enemies for Tinubu. Every time he brags about sabotage, he tells Nigerians that Tinubu’s 2023 victory was not based on ideas but on sabotage. Is that the story you want to go to 2027 with? A President must know when to call his minister to order. Tinubu’s refusal to do so emboldens impunity.

‘What they must do now – Swallow pride and vanity, apologise, talk to the people’. This is not too late. Nigeria forgives. But leaders must be humble.

President Tinubu must return and be seen: End the endless foreign vacations. Be in Nigeria. Visit Benue IDP camps. Visit markets. The optics of a President who feels the pain matters. He should have been at UNGA. He must be at the next AU, ECOWAS, and UN. Absence must end.

Call Wike to order publicly: Wike must be told that Ministers don’t threaten states with “win at all cost.” Ministers don’t decide who gets second term in Rivers. Ministers don’t call 30 + elected governors lazy.

Replace dangerous assumptions with messages of hope: Stop talking about 2027 as if it is a war to be won at all cost.

Start talking about 2025-2026 as years to deliver food, electricity, security. Tell Nigerians: How will food inflation come down from 40% to 15% in 12 months? How will you make electricity affordable again for artisans? How will you stop kidnapping in schools? That is what Section 14(2)(b) demands. The danger of their assumptions is this: They assume power is permanent if you capture structures. But power is ephemeral if you lose people. You can win Rivers at all cost and lose Nigeria. You can sabotage Atiku and lose the trust of honest politicians. You can call governors lazy and find no governor to stand with you when the real storm comes. History is full of men who won elections and lost countries. We do not want Tinubu to join that list. He has the chance to be a great reformer. But reform requires humility, presence, and empathy – not absence in France and noisy impunity in Abuja.