After months of raising the hopes of Nigerians that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be attending the 2026 edition of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the USA, the presidency returned with reports that the VP, Kashim Shettima, would be attending instead.
This doesn’t normally attract so many reactions, but the statement of Jimoh Ibrahim, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, explaining that a seat has been arranged for Tinubu beside President Donald Trump made the new development the talk of the town.
Questions are being raised: since a seat has been reserved already, why then did the President decide to ignore it and prefer that his vice attends? Several questions have been asked, but there have been no tangible answers from the presidency; rather, it’s been statements justifying the absence of the president.
If there were already plans for the president to attend UNGA, with a mighty seat reserved for him, and at the last minute he changed his mind, what could be responsible for it? One answer that comes to my mind is Primate Elijah Ayodele.
Yes, you may be wondering how Primate Ayodele is being mentioned in this current situation because, to most people, he doesn’t like President Tinubu, but what people fail to understand is that the prophet doesn’t hate anyone; his counsel may be considered harsh sometimes, but he tells the truth and nothing more, and with the new development, it seems President Tinubu listens to his prophetic counsel.
Primate Ayodele, through his channels, has said about four to five times that President Tinubu shouldn’t go to the United States of America because he will be embarrassed. The man of God said countless times that Donald Trump doesn’t mean well for Nigeria, and if Tinubu attends the UNGA or goes to America, there will be serious issues for him.
In one of his videos, these were the exact words he said: “I beg again, Tinubu, don’t travel to America next month. Going to America is the end of your government. If you go to America, you will see that America will have more cases against you. Don’t go to America, and don’t go and beg them for victory.”
In another video, he said, “Tinubu going to America isn’t going to befit him. Donald Trump is adamant about removing him.”
In another one, he urged the president to ignore every meeting with America.
“Tinubu, don’t go to America; shelve every meeting with America. He is planning it now. Don’t go to America; ignore America.”
These are powerful warnings that can be very difficult to ignore, especially when Primate Ayodele’s credibility is considered. Primate Ayodele has always spoken about Tinubu even before he got into power, and almost everything he said has been fulfilled. Therefore, if the president decides to listen to him this time around, it is for the benefit of his administration.
Meanwhile, it should also be noted that Primate Ayodele urged Tinubu to work against the release of his criminal documents which is being battled in court in the USA. He mentioned that if the document gets out, the president should forget about his second term.
Ayodele claimed that the President does not know the gravity of the matter because people working on it for him are deceiving him, saying, “If those documents come out, it will end Tinubu’s second term because the power behind it is heavy. Tinubu is just playing around it; people working to stop it are only deceiving him.”
With Tinubu deciding to excuse himself from UNGA, he is definitely listening to Primate Ayodele’s counsel.