After over two weeks remote governance from France and the UK, President Bola Tinubu has returned to Nigeria.

Mr Tinubu, who left the country on a working visit to France on April 2, touched down at Abuja International Airport on Monday.

However, the presidency said Mr Tinubu was doing fine work of running the country from Europe. 

A statement by presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, on Thursday, said Mr Tinubu has been “overseeing critical national issues” from abroad, while assuring citizens “that governance proceeds without interruption.”

While in France, Mr Tinubu met U.S. State Department Senior Advisor, Massad Boulos, remotely inaugurated the census committee and condemned gunmen attacks in Plateau State that claimed almost 100 lives, ordering security agencies to swing into action.

In Benue, over 50 people were killed in coordinated attacks by gunmen.

Nigerians criticised Mr Tinubu for remaining and governing the country remote amid widespread killings and kidnapping across the country.

Leaders of opposition groups, Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of Labour Party both knocked Mr Tinubu for staying back in Europe while the country was on fire.

Citing former American President Barack Obama, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and former President Goodluck Jonathan among leaders who abruptly ended their state visits to attend to serious national issues, Mr Abubakar said “Nigerians are dying. The president is nowhere to be found.”

On Saturday, Matthew Kukah, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, in his Easter homily, lamented widespread killings across the country, saying Nigeria is becoming a national morgue under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.

“Every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions,” Mr Kukah said. “Mr President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point. The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. With a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.”