On Wednesday, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu attended a private working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris, as his 10-day working leave reached its fifth day.
The State House shared photographs of both presidents exchanging cordial handshakes before entering the palace.
Tinubu is currently on his second tranche of yearly vacation, which he is splitting between France and the United Kingdom.
Wednesday’s meeting is his sixth in Paris since taking office in May 2023, and his first since visiting the BRICS conference in Brazil and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Japan earlier this year.
So far, in the first nine months of 2025, the President has made 15 international travels to 11 countries.
Summits, bilateral meetings, state visits, presidential inaugurations, and official leave are all examples of this.
Tinubu began his diplomatic trip on January 6 with a visit to Ghana’s capital, Accra, to attend President-elect John Dramani Mahama’s inauguration on January 7.
He was in the United Arab Emirates from January 12 to 16, attending the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit and holding side discussions with Gulf investors and officials about trade and energy cooperation.
He traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on January 27 and 28 to attend the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit.
In February, the President visited France before attending the 37th African Union Summit in Ethiopia, where he met with other African leaders to discuss regional security, climate adaption, and continental trade integration under the AfCFTA.
Tinubu went on a two-week working visit to France and the United Kingdom from April 2 to April 21.
In mid-May, the President visited Vatican City to attend Pope Leo XIV’s historic inauguration in Rome.
From June 28 to July 4, Tinubu made a historic state visit to Saint Lucia, where he addressed CARICOM leaders in Castries.
He flew from Saint Lucia to Brazil, where he attended the 17th BRICS Summit.
He traveled to Japan the same month to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, where he pushed Nigeria’s investment readiness to Japanese companies and met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about maritime security and digital infrastructure.
Tinubu and his entourage stopped in Dubai, UAE, on August 15, and landed in Yokohama early on August 18.
It was his second visit to the Gulf state this year.
In September, he returned to the United Kingdom and France for a working vacation, his third trip to Paris this year and his second to London.
Tinubu and Macron meet privately for lunch in Paris, as reported by The Punch.
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