The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised President Bola Tinubu for what it described as an “unexplained five-day disappearance” after attending the 2025 BRICS summit in Brazil.
After participating in the summit in Rio de Janeiro, Tinubu returned to Nigeria in the early hours of Sunday, five days after the summit officially ended.
ADC spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement issued on Sunday, said no official explanation has been made for Tinubu’s delayed return to the country.
“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tell Nigerians where he has been for five days since the end of the BRICS Summit in Brazil,” the statement reads.
“The President, who returned in the early hours of Sunday, had been missing from public view since the end of the Summit in Brazil without any official explanation as to his whereabouts.
“Since the summit ended on Monday, July 7th, all the other world leaders who were in attendance returned home, briefed their citizens, and got back to work.
“But our President? He only reappeared in Abuja in the early hours of Sunday, July 13, without a word, without a briefing, or any explanation as to why his return to the country had been delayed.”
Abdullahi said five days are “significant,” given that Nigeria is battling insecurity and “tottering economy.”
“The President was not on holidays; he was on official duty. We therefore cannot wish those five days away and we demand a clear explanation for them,” he said.
The ADC also noted a recurring pattern of unaccounted absence since Tinubu assumed office.
“The ADC also notes with concern that this disdain for accountability around the President’s overseas trip has become a distinct hallmark of this administration,” Abdullahi said.
“In January 2024, a so-called ‘private visit’ to France turned into a two-week disappearance. No photos, and no statements from our President.
“In April 2024, President Tinubu travelled to the Netherlands, and then to Riyadh, for the World Economic Forum. The summit ended on April 29th, 2024, but there was not a word from him until May 8th, 2024. Those were nine days of unexplained vacuum.
“In August 2024, President Tinubu flew to China via Dubai. After his engagements in Beijing, he vanished from public view on September 5th, and mysteriously surfaced in London on September 11th. He was missing for six days—no explanations, no letter transmitted to the National Assembly, just silence.
“And in the same August 2024, the President also embarked on yet another ‘brief work stay’ in Paris. He remained incommunicado for three days, then quietly returned, as if the nation does not deserve to know,” he added.
Abdullahi said the president’s “mysterious disappearances” sparked speculations and rumours unhealthy to the polity.
“A president that disappears without explanation cannot be trusted to be present to solve the crises that we face,” he said.
“A President that vanishes without accountability has no moral authority to demand sacrifice from citizens.”
Abdullahi said the excuses of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for these “serial disappearances” is a contempt to Nigerians.
