by Mohammed Bello Doka
24 September, 2026.
The 81st United Nations General Assembly has convened in New York. More than 120 heads of state and government are gathered in one hall, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who left Paris to attend in person. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is in Paris. He is not in New York. He has never been in New York for the UNGA. Not once. Not in 2023. Not in 2024. Not in 2025. Not in 2026. Tinubu has been President of Nigeria for three years. In those three years, he has never attended the United Nations General Assembly. Every single year, he has sent Vice President Kashim Shettima in his place. Every single year, the seat reserved for Nigeria's head of state has been occupied by someone else. Every single year, the President has found a reason to be somewhere other than the largest gathering of world leaders on earth.
The Presidency says the President is on a working vacation and that domestic matters require his attention. The Presidency says Vice President Shettima has full mandate to represent Nigeria. The Presidency says there is absolutely no impediment to the President traveling to the United States.
If there is no impediment, why has the President never attended the UNGA in three years? If domestic affairs require his attention, why is he in Paris while the world convenes in New York? What is he doing in Paris that matters more than standing before 193 nations? The explanation does not hold. The pattern does not lie.
Three consecutive absences from the UNGA is not a scheduling preference. It is a signal. And the signal points directly to one thing: fear. The fear of stepping onto American soil. The fear of what American authorities may do or say or reveal. The fear of embarrassment at the hands of the United States government.
The President has a history with American law enforcement. In 1993, he forfeited $460,000 to the United States government following proceedings in a Chicago court that found the money was proceeds from heroin trafficking. He was not criminally convicted. His defenders cling to that distinction. But a civil forfeiture tied to a heroin ring is not a parking ticket. It is not a minor administrative matter. It is a documented surrender of nearly half a million dollars to the US government in connection with narcotics trafficking.
That case has not disappeared. A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan has forced the FBI and DEA to search for records related to their investigations. A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that the agencies improperly withheld information and ordered them to process the files. The FBI has submitted a 399-page unredacted file for the judge's eyes only. The President's legal team has intervened in the case, asking the court to block the release of records. His lawyers argue that disclosure would infringe on his privacy rights.
A clear conscience does not fear investigation. A clear conscience does not hire lawyers to suppress files. A clear conscience does not avoid the jurisdiction where those files are held. The President's actions speak louder than any press statement from his aides. If he has nothing to hide, why is he hiding?
The Presidency calls the questions baseless and irresponsible. The Presidency urges Nigerians to distinguish between verified information and speculation. But the verified information is damning enough. The $460,000 forfeiture is a matter of public record. The FOIA litigation is ongoing. The President's repeated absence from the United States is observable fact. What more verification is required?
Seneca wrote that there is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as the conscience which dwells within us. The President's conscience is not the only witness here. The world is watching. The 193 member states of the United Nations are assembled in New York. Nigeria's seat is occupied by a Vice President. The President's seat is empty. The world sees the empty seat. The world asks the obvious question.
And the answer is not about domestic security. The answer is not about economic priorities. The answer is about a President who cannot bring himself to stand before the United States.
The implications for Nigeria are severe. The UNGA is not a ceremonial forum. It is where leaders hold bilateral meetings, court investors, negotiate partnerships, and make the case for their nations. When the President is absent for three consecutive years, Nigeria is absent from the rooms where decisions are made. When the head of state is not in the room, the head of state does not close the deal. Investment does not follow silence. International capital does not pursue a country whose leader repeatedly abandons the global stage.
The cost is borne by ordinary Nigerians. Fewer partnerships mean fewer investments. Fewer investments mean fewer jobs. Reduced capital inflows place pressure on the naira. A weaker naira raises the cost of imports, production, transportation, and food. The President may treat the UNGA as a matter of personal prerogative. But the consequences of his absence are paid by the Nigerian people.
And there is the deeper cost: the cost to Nigeria's reputation. The world sees a Nigerian President who will linger in Paris but will not appear before the United Nations in New York. The world sees a Nigerian President who has never attended the UNGA in three years of leadership. The world sees a President whose Paris visit has produced no announced agreements, no signed deals, no tangible outcomes, no evidence of engagement with anyone of consequence. The world draws conclusions. Those conclusions do not flatter Nigeria. They raise questions about what the President is running from. They raise questions about what the United States knows or might reveal. They raise questions that Nigeria's diplomats cannot answer because they do not know the answers themselves.
Confucius said: The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men's not knowing him. A leader who avoids the world's largest stage because of personal legal exposure is distressed by something else entirely. He is distressed by what the world might learn. He is distressed by what American investigators might find. He is distressed by the possibility that the records now sitting in a federal courthouse in Washington might be released.
The President is not distressed by his want of ability. He is distressed by his want of innocence. If he were innocent, he would go to New York. He would stand before the world. He would look President Trump in the eye from the seat Nigeria's UN ambassador reportedly secured for him. He would put the questions to rest by his presence.
He has not done so. He will not do so. And the reason is now plain for all to see. A President who fears investigation is a President who has something to fear. A President who has never attended the UNGA in three years is a President who believes the United States has something on him.
Nigeria deserves a President who can travel anywhere, face anyone, and answer any question. Instead, Nigeria has a President who stays in Paris while the world gathers in New York. The seat is empty. The question remains. And the answer is written in the pattern itself.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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