President Bola Tinubu has left Abuja for a three-week break in Europe, while the Presidency said the holiday is intended to allow him to recharge before months of intensive campaigning for the 2027 elections.
Tinubu departed Nigeria on Sunday, August 30, 2026, after a send-off at the airport attended by government officials, security personnel, and military officers. His first destination is London, according to his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Presidential Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, said the President needed the break after spending the past six to seven months handling matters of state, including security and economic decisions.
“The President has had several months, six, seven months, of being engaged with state matters,” Dare said while speaking to journalists at the airport.
He said the period had involved major decisions affecting the country’s security and economy, adding that the approaching political season would place fresh demands on the President.
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Dare said the 2027 campaign season had already begun and would involve several months of intensive political activity.
“And at this point, the campaign season has just started. We have four, five months of serious campaigning. Of course, governance will still continue,” he said.
The Presidency therefore sees the leave as a period of physical and mental renewal before Tinubu enters what is expected to be a demanding stretch of political activity.
Dare also made clear that the holiday would not mean the President would be cut off from government business while abroad. He said Tinubu would continue receiving regular briefings from ministers, service chiefs, and other officials responsible for key national decisions.
“Even though he’s going on leave, we know that he’ll be engaged with state matters on a daily basis,” Dare said.
He explained that the President would receive updates from ministers and security chiefs “as the case may be”, allowing him to keep track of important developments despite being outside Nigeria.
The departure followed an earlier announcement by Onanuga that Tinubu would spend three weeks on annual leave in Europe. Onanuga said the President was expected to return to Nigeria after the working vacation and join the campaign activities ahead of the January 2027 election.
Tinubu’s European trip also comes less than two weeks after Vice-President Kashim Shettima returned from his own two-week leave.
Shettima began his vacation on August 6 and returned on August 18, two days earlier than initially scheduled. His office had said the leave would provide time for “study, reflection and intellectual renewal”.
However, the timing of the break places the holiday against an increasingly active political calendar. His return is expected to coincide with preparations for the 2027 presidential contest, while his administration continues to handle security, economic, and other matters of governance.
Dare said the President’s immediate priority was to use the break to “refuel” before the next phase of his official and political engagements.
The Presidency has thus presented the three-week absence not as a withdrawal from government, but as a scheduled annual leave during which Tinubu will continue to receive briefings and monitor key affairs of the country.
