Nigerians have berated President Bola Tinubu for failing to participate in a live economic session at the ongoing summit of world leaders in Paris. 

On Thursday, Mr Tinubu asked the country’s ambassador to represent him instead. It was not immediately clear why Mr Tinubu could not go on stage by himself, especially as his office previously announced he was in France to attend the summit and participate in a debate about Africa’s economic prospects. 

Though it was unclear why Mr Tinubu could not go on stage by himself, especially as his office previously announced he was in France to attend the summit and participate in a debate about Africa’s economic prospects, a report of his “no show” has elicited criticisms amongst Nigerian netizens, many who recalled how Mr Tinubu chickened out from answering questions at Chatham House during his campaign. 

A Twitter user, @ajaGunSEgun_, said, “It’s only three weeks into his administration. Nobody has yet seen any material impact of his policies on anyone’s lives, but some brown nosers are already declaring Bola Tinubu to be the best president Nigeria has ever had. This’s the best president asking another official to represent him when it matters most. Apparently, this is exactly the meaning of “Bala blue,Blue bulaba.”

Another Twitter user, @Irunnia_, said, “He did this at Chatham house but Agbado people said it meant he trust his people. Do u know how it looks when your president can’t even speak when he should because his old brains could go blank? This is what you get when you vote in a man who should be in an old people’s home.”

@MichaelEmiabata noted that “this incident has proven that Bola Tinubu is not fit to be the president of Nigeria. Where it matters the most for our nation, he could not perform. This is a big shame.”

Another Twitter user, @JakesOlasupo, decried that “they are still doing this “teamship” nonsense,” noting that “this is what happens when you did not win the election and got selected by INEC.”

@nosakhare_elvis warned of more potential scandals from the Nigerian leader, tweeting, “We have not seen anything yet. His governance will be characterized by a lot of proxy appearances and representations. How can someone who cannot control his reflexes represent us? The mob will soon come after you guys now the same way they have been after Rufai. God help us.”

@pdauda felt that Mr Tinubu should have stayed back in Nigeria.

“Sir Gacity travelled to Paris 2 days before the summit then failed to “climb” the stage. Would’ve been prudent to stay back, connect via Zoom and ask Gbaj and Dele to answer and address the panel innit?” stated the Twitter user. “Dodged debates back home and think you can use Obgoju internationally abi?” 

However, some supporters of Mr Tinubu justified his “no-show” as a delegation in leadership. Some of them said the president delegated Mr Ahmed to speak on his behalf to attend other meetings. (See more comments here.)

Mr Tinubu was scheduled to join other participants on stage at 6:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. in Nigeria) on Thursday, with his aides saying he was fully prepared for the event as his first since becoming president on May 29. 

However, it turned out to be Nigerian ambassador Adamu Ahmed, appearing on stage with David Craig, co-chair of the task force on nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD); Mark Carney of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Mary Schapiro of global public policy at Bloomberg, Sabine Mauderer of the Network for Greening the Financial System; and United Nations special envoy Catherine Mckenna.