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By Our Correspondent 

Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has questioned the absence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the 81st United Nations General Assembly, contrasting Nigeria’s non-attendance by its President with Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama’s appearance and address at the global gathering.

Obi raised the question in a post on X on Sunday while commenting on Mahama’s address to the UN General Assembly in New York. 

Under the pointed heading, “Where Is Nigeria’s President?”, Obi said Mahama’s participation at the UNGA demonstrated what leadership could achieve when “competence, capacity, compassion, commitment and character” were brought together in the service of a nation.

Mahama addressed the 81st UNGA on September 24, where he spoke on Ghana’s economic recovery and highlighted measures he said had helped stabilise the country’s economy, including fiscal discipline and governance reforms. 

Obi then turned his attention to Nigeria, asking why the President of Africa’s most populous country was absent from what remains one of the world’s most important diplomatic gatherings.

“Where is the President of Africa’s most populous nation, a country of more than 200 million people – more than Ghana – whose leader has been absent from the global stage for three consecutive UNGAs?” Obi asked.

The 2026 absence is particularly significant because it is the third consecutive UN General Assembly that Tinubu has not personally attended. He was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2024 and 2025, and Shettima is again leading Nigeria’s delegation in 2026. Tinubu personally attended the 78th UNGA in 2023. 

Nigeria has nevertheless been represented at the current assembly. Shettima delivered Nigeria’s national statement and spoke on issues including reform of the UN Security Council, with Nigeria renewing its demand for permanent African representation on the Council. 

But for Obi, the presence of the Vice President does not answer the larger question of the President’s repeated absence.

“Although our Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was present, the question remains: Where is the President?” he wrote.

The NDC candidate also questioned the absence against the backdrop of Nigeria’s domestic and international challenges, asking why the country’s President was not personally providing leadership on the global stage at a time he said the nation required strong representation.

The Presidency has said Tinubu’s 2026 absence is connected to his working vacation and domestic priorities, while Shettima was given the President’s full mandate to represent Nigeria at the UNGA. 

The controversy over the President’s absence has nevertheless intensified because of its repetition. The 2026 UNGA is the third successive occasion on which Tinubu has delegated representation to Shettima after personally attending in 2023. 

Obi, who is positioning himself as the NDC’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election, ended his intervention with an appeal for Nigerians to pray for Tinubu’s return and for effective presidential leadership in confronting the country’s challenges.

“Let us continue to pray for his return and for his leadership in addressing the many challenges confronting the nation,” he said.

He concluded with his familiar political message: “A new Nigeria is POssible.”