Omoyele Sowore, a lawyer who works on human rights, said that President Bola Tinubu’s travel to the UK is just a “diplomatic excursion” and doesn’t help Nigeria in any way.
This is the first time a Nigerian leader has officially visited the UK in decades. Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate for the 2023 election, says that the president’s visit is not worth anything.
“These visits are just diplomatic trips.” Sowore stated on Channels Television today, “Maybe the president will also see his doctors. He hasn’t traveled in about a month.”
“All I’m saying is that, aside from the hype you see on TV, it’s not bringing anything to Nigeria that Nigeria can’t get or shouldn’t have.” That’s what I’m trying to say: we keep lying to ourselves when we say we’re going to travel this time.
Since taking office in 2023, President Tinubu has been abroad multiple times. His administration believes these excursions are aimed to bring in investments.
Sowore, on the other hand, is one of the president’s most vocal detractors and says that his visits abroad have not brought in a “single dime” to the country.
Not Getting It Right?
He thinks the visits are a waste of time and that Nigeria is “just burning fuel in the air with our aircraft.”
Sowore stated on the breakfast show, “The cost of these trips is much higher in the end than whatever we get from the so-called investment they say is going to happen.”
“If you do things right, investors will come to your country.” He said, “You don’t have to travel.”
He says that singers and other artists offer greater value to the country when they go on tour abroad.
He stated, “Sometimes, some of these musicians of ours who go to the UK to perform bring in more money than the president does when he goes to the UK or anywhere else.”
Tinubu is going to meet with King Charles III on the first state visit to the country in almost 40 years.
The Nigerian president has been to Britain many times during his term in office, and the two nations are still important partners in trade, aid, and defense. There is also a large Nigerian diaspora in London.
The president and his wife, Oluremi, got to London yesterday at Stansted Airport.
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