Tinubu ends speculation about his whereabouts as he arrives back in Abuja from Holland

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has ended speculation about his whereabouts and returned to Nigeria after a two-week absence that saw him visit Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands flying into the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Over the last week, there has been a lot of speculation about the whereabouts of President Tinubu and questions have been raised about the state of his health. Late last month, the president was in Riyadh for the World Economic Forum (Wef) in Saudi Arabia and from there travelled to the Netherlands for an official visit for a meeting with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu's spokesman, confirmed that he us returning from the Netherlands today. After the Wef, President Tinubu left Saudi Arabia for an unknown European destination for an undisclosed mission that had generated some controversy, as many people asked whether he went for a health check.

Former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had accused President Tinubu of globetrotting in search of foreign direct investments. He also dismissed the presidency’s claims of having secured over $30bn from various companies, when nothing was forthcoming or could be seen on the ground.

Alhaji Atiku said: “Rather, all manufacturing firms have been posting heavy losses while some are exiting due to his poorly implemented exchange rate unification policy, with even Aliko Dangote describing it as a huge mess at the recent annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery. The IMF in its latest report stated that Nigeria will by the end of the year become the fourth largest economy in Africa behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, a disgraceful development for a nation which was the largest in Africa by a mile when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) left the stage in 2015."

However, the presidency, which accused Alhaji Atiku of the distortion of facts to hoodwink the public, said the Tinubu administration, within its first year, had attracted over $20bn into the economy, in addition to securing over  $14bn in new investments from Indian business leaders at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last year. It claimed that substantial part of this sum was already in the country.

Mr Onanuga added: “In an unmistakable vote of confidence in the economic reforms being executed by the Tinubu administration, foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market has ballooned, from N18.12bn in the first quarter of 2023 to N93.37bn in the first quarter of 2024, representing an increase of 415%.  The last time Nigeria saw such level of investment was in the first quarter of 2019, when N97.6bn was invested.

"The market, since Tinubu came to power, has broken records and created more wealth for the investors. During President Tinubu’s recent trip to the Netherlands, the prime minister, Mark Rutte, announced a fresh $250m investment by Dutch businesses in Nigeria.”

He stated that different sectors of the economy, notably telecoms, manufacturing, solid minerals, oil and gas, e-commerce and fintech, had been attracting new foreign direct investments from discerning investors. According to Mr Onanuga, they were convinced that Nigeria was a good market for bountiful returns.