Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign, has launched a harsh attack on President Bola Tinubu, alleging that the President is deliberately avoiding the United States due to fears of arrest over historical drug-related allegations.
Reacting to Tinubu’s decision to skip the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York for the third consecutive year, Okonkwo suggested the President’s absence is a calculated avoidance rather than a routine delegation of duty.
Speaking on Arise News, Okonkwo did not mince words, asserting, “A reasonable man should say that he’s hiding from the United States of America.” He escalated the claim by suggesting the President fears reprisal from the current US administration, stating, “Tinubu is hiding. He is running away from being arrested by Trump.”
To substantiate his claims, Okonkwo pointed to a 1993 US civil forfeiture proceeding involving approximately $460,000 linked to alleged narcotics trafficking, as well as a recent, ongoing legal push by Tinubu’s legal team to block the release of certain US government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Okonkwo argued that the President’s absence is particularly suspicious given earlier indications that he would attend the global summit.
The Presidency has totally rejected these insinuations, dismissing any link between the President’s travel plans and alleged US travel restrictions. Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga recently clarified the nature of the ongoing US litigation, stressing that it is strictly a “civil records-disclosure dispute” under FOIA and “not a criminal case against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Onanuga emphasized that no court has found the President guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, maintaining that Tinubu is currently on a working vacation in Europe and continues to seamlessly direct government affairs while Vice President Kashim Shettima leads the Nigerian delegation in New York.
As the 2027 election cycle looms, the debate over the President’s international mobility has become a potent proxy war for his political opponents. While the administration insists the UNGA absence is a standard administrative decision, and the US legal matters are purely civil, Okonkwo’s allegations ensure that the optics of the President’s empty chair in New York remain heavily contested. In the unforgiving theater of Nigerian politics, the opposition’s strategy is clear: transform a logistical absence into a narrative of evasion, proving that in the battle for public perception, historical legal records are just as heavily weaponized as current policy failures.
Promise Idoko is Junior Reporter working with moderncrux He covers global politics and international affairs. Based in Nigeria,
