Tinubu de-markets Nigeria with his penchant for overseas travels, by Olu Fasan

Earlier this week, President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, announced that the president had cut short his two-week vacation in France and returned to Nigeria “to resume official duties”. Given that Onanuga previously described the president’s trip to France as a “working” holiday, one must wonder why Tinubu stopped working remotely from France.

Truth be told, President Tinubu was wrong to embark on that trip in the first place. Whatever forced him to truncate his stay in France already existed before he left this country: Nigeria was in a dire strait; insecurity was overly uncontrollable, acute poverty and hunger were dehumanising ordinary Nigerians, and the government was rudderless and bumbling. By choosing to travel abroad under those dreadful circumstances, Tinubu behaved like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned!

Interestingly, while President Tinubu was in Paris, France was embroiled in a political crisis, as the Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou, was ousted by parliament after a vote of no confidence. President Emmanuel Macron was at home, all hands on deck, to handle the upheaval and its aftermath. His decision to meet Tinubu in the midst of the crisis was out of sheer diplomatic niceties.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, came out of the meeting that moved the needle in tackling Nigeria’s multifaceted challenges. However, it fitted the contrived narrative that President Tinubu was working in France, hence the presidency ensured that the pictures of Macron and Tinubu’s handshake and embrace were published in major Nigerian newspapers. But presidents don’t run their countries through meaningless junketing and photo opportunities with foreign leaders; they tackle problems head-on at home.

Unfortunately, successive Nigerian presidents, at least since President Muhammadu Buhari, have felt more comfortable abroad than at home. All medical treatments take place abroad, and virtually all holidays or vacations are in foreign countries, notably Britain and France. In its manifesto in 2015, the All Progressives Congress, APC, promised to build “world-class hospitals” in Nigeria, so “world-class” that no Nigerian president would need to travel abroad for medical treatment. Yet, throughout his eight years in power, Buhari had his medical treatment abroad, and his successor, Tinubu, has continued the practice of receiving medical attention overseas.   

In a remarkable insight into presidential mindset, Femi Adesina, Buhari’s former spokesman, recently said that President Buhari, who died on July 13 this year, “could have died a long time ago” had he relied on medical treatment in Nigeria. Retorting, Garba Shehu, another Buhari aide, denied that his formal principal snubbed the Nigeria healthcare system, saying that Buhari’s preferred medical treatment abroad was because of his “long-standing medical relationship overseas”.

He ignored the fact that the Nigerian state footed the medical bill, expending huge foreign exchange at a time when businesses struggled to access forex for critical raw-material imports. Surely, President Tinubu would argue that he, too, preferred overseas medical treatment because of his “long-standing medical relationship overseas”. But when a president can easily fly out for medical treatment, he lacks the incentive to develop world-class healthcare system at home. All British Prime Ministers use the National Health Service, NHS, for themselves and their families, just like virtually other British citizens, hence they understand the imperative of investing heavily in the NHS.

But leaving aside overseas medical trips, what about presidential holidays. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a president occasionally travelling abroad for a holiday, but when foreign holidays become routine or a default practice, it raises a question of whether the president is putting other countries above his own. From a travel and tourism perspective, every president is his country’s chief marketer, trumpeting, by showing not telling, his country’s beauty and tourist attractions. But if a president’s default holiday destination is a foreign country, how can he attract foreign tourists to his country. Last week, I wrote that currency devaluation can boost tourism because a cheaper currency makes a country more affordable for foreign tourists. Yet, despite its massively devalued currency, Nigeria attracts virtually no foreign leisure travellers, even though it has great tourism potential, with significant cultural assets and rich natural beauty, including historical sites. 

Recently, I attended a dinner organised for some Singaporean trade delegates in London. During our conversations, the delegates talked about their summer holidays, and virtually every one of them said they went to Africa. But where in Africa? Well, the list included South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. No one mentioned Nigeria. Why? I asked. It never occurred to them that Nigeria was an attractive tourist destination; it’s not a country they would fly to for a holiday.

Truth is, reputation is critical to a country’s ability to attract tourists. Sadly, for years, Nigeria has languished at the bottom of the Reputation Institute’s Country RepTrak Index, listed among the world’s least reputable countries. Furthermore, Nigeria’s tourism sector is not internationally competitive. Nigeria ranked 112th out of 119 in the 2024 World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report. Thus, it’s understandable why foreigners don’t consider Nigeria an attractive tourist destination. Then, add the fact that Nigeria’s president prefers holidaying abroad than in his own country, and you will understand why foreign tourists who flock to other African countries every year won’t book a holiday ticket to Nigeria: It’s simply not on their radar!

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said: “Build a better mousetrap and the world will build a path to your door.” That tells us that if a nation builds a great reputation for itself, if it makes itself irresistibly attractive and welcoming to others, the world will pay attention and be drawn to it. But Nigeria has never attempted to build a better mousetrap, hence the world is not seriously beating a path to its door.

Take foreign investment. Beyond medical treatment and holidays, successive Nigerian presidents have often claimed that their overseas travels are intended to attract foreign investors. But where are the foreign investors? The type of foreign capital that Nigeria has been attracting – portfolio investment – does not need a presidential trip abroad. Portfolio investment, also known as “hot money”, comes about when short-term funds chase high yields in government securities, induced by high interest rates. So, as long as the Naira remains devalued and the CBN continues to raise the interest rates, Nigeria will continue to attract hot money, which can flow in today and flow out tomorrow! But high interest rates raise the borrowing costs for businesses, undermining their competitiveness.

Sadly, the foreign investment that really matters – foreign direct investment or “sticky money” – is rarely coming to Nigeria. Indeed, FDI inflow was zero in 2022, according to the WTO. And the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that FDI plummeted to $126.29 million in Q1 of 2025, a 70 per cent decline from Q1 of 2024. Out of the total capital inflows, FDI accounted for a minuscule 2.24 per cent, while portfolio investment captured over 90 per cent. Put simply, Nigeria is an attractive destination for long-term, high-value investment commitments. The push-factors repelling risk-averse investors from Nigeria are simply stronger than the pull-factors attracting them.

But given that Nigeria is not a natural destination for long-term investors and foreign tourists, what exactly is the value of Tinubu’s frequent overseas travels? The answer is: trifling!  In a perverse sense, his penchant for foreign medical trips, foreign holidays and other junketing is demarketing Nigeria! 

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