The back and forth between Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, and the Presidency over President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s trip to Saint Lucia has been trending for days. Obi had accused the president of holidaying abroad amid the multiple challenges back home.
“I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President, on whose table the buck stops in this country, with all the myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance, would contemplate a leisure trip at this time. This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger state where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster. I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens,” he had said.
Presidential spokesmen, Bayo Onanuga and Frederick Nwabufo, had hit back at Obi whom they accused of mischief.
While Onanuga said the visit aligns with Nigeria’s Four D’s foreign policy framework: Democracy, Development, Diaspora, and Demography, Nwabufo described Obi as the figure of a “tragedy connoisseur, consistently fouling this space with lamentations vacant of substance and facts”.
But not done, Obi fired another salvo, insisting that the trip was needless.
During an X Space session with his supporters on Sunday night, Obi had alleged that while Tinubu had not spent a single night in any Nigerian state aside from Lagos since assuming office, he opted to spend eight nights in the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia.
“In two years, Tinubu has not spent one night in any state in Nigeria apart from Lagos, yet he is going to spend eight nights in St Lucia, a place smaller than Ajegunle,” he had said.
Obi’s remark drew attention across media and political circles, sought to contrast the president’s foreign engagements with what he described as domestic neglect.
However, a careful review of Tinubu’s travel history and official engagements reveals that the claim is false.
For instance, in Katsina State, Tinubu was on a two-day official visit around May 4 to 6, 2025, during which he assessed security operations and interacted with troops.
The extended nature of the visit, alongside engagements spread across days, indicates that he stayed in the state overnight.
It is also important to note that Tinubu resides primarily in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, where the seat of government is located.
As president, he performs most of his duties from Aso Rock Villa, which also serves as his official residence.
To exclude Abuja from the narrative, as the claim seems to do, undermines the basic constitutional reality of presidential residency and governance.
While there are states Tinubu has visited for brief events or ceremonies such as Anambra, Benue, and Ondo, clear confirmations of overnight stays in Katsina especially is sufficient to invalidate Obi’s sweeping claim.
Therefore, the suggestion that President Tinubu has not slept in any Nigerian state apart from Lagos is factually inaccurate.
Evidence clearly shows that the president has undertaken overnight visits in at least one different state, in addition to his routine stays in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Verdict: False. Tinubu has spent nights in multiple Nigerian states outside Lagos during his presidency.
