President Bola Tinubu has moved around the world 18 times since his swearing-in as Nigeria’s president. Three of those occasions went as “private visits”. Whatever that means.

But the hoopla those trips usually generate throws up a lot of confusion. Many Nigerians then miss the points of those trips.

Tinubu has attended no fewer than 15 meetings, summits and conferences in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia. Most of these had trade and diplomatic relations as their core.

The toll of this shuttle diplomacy on a 72-year-old president with a medical history that made headlines is anybody’s guess.

Add to it the Nigerian media beady eyes on the presidency. It becomes easy to understand why Tinubu must do whatever to make Nigerians see him as fit as a fiddle. His predecessor and party leader Muhammadu Buhari flew to London 200 times in eight years to fix his health. Nigerians have dubbed him the sickest president they ever had.

The media won’t tolerate a dicky heart again at Aso Rock.

To beat them, Tinubu’s health handlers might have scheduled periodic medical check-ups for him. Each session comes sandwiched in between spells of exertion—or foreseeable stress.

So an analysis of Tinubu’s shuttle across the world breaks down to two: official and medical. Forget the bureaucratic lingo (‘private visits’) to Paris or London coming after each long shuttle. 

Their announcement gives Tinubu’s media aide Ajuri Ngelale a lot of headaches. But the private visits—three in about a year—shouldn’t bother anyone much. Except for the lack of transparency.

September 29, 2023

From May 29, Tinubu went through a lot of rigour.  The whoopie of election victory at Aso Rock; the jet lag from flying around Nigeria; and the stress of  a  summit in India. He even attended the last UNGA in New York, and ravished the assembly with his barn-burner of a speech. 

By September, his biological clock ticked for a reset. He then flew  to London for a ‘private visit’—after a meeting in Paris. That supercharged him for the 63rd Independence Anniversary coming ahead. And he spent the remaining months floundering in  the fallout of his tough economic policies.

The stress nearly overwhelmed him and Nigeria in the last quarter of 2023.

January 24,  2024

Towards the end of January, the need arose to soup-up the engine again. At least for the new year. Ngelale  announced the President’s departure on January 24, 2024, for a ‘private visit’. Tinubu returned hard as nails in the first week of February.

April 29, 2024

A lot has happened since January. He has flown about some more, for meetings, holding back to back at times. The last  took him to The Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. And many more engagements still lie ahead. Especially the forth-coming Democracy Day which will see him lead an anniversary trek in Abuja.

To do this with a swagger, Tinubu will tax his kneecap he fixed months before the presidential race in 2022. 

Paris beckoned.

His flight to  the last private visit had no official announcement this time. But, for the opposition, the French capital city has become a by-word for Tinubu’s medical tourism.

The old bird had to doss down there between April 29 and May 4.

Back home, the media started growling about Tinubu’s absence. At some point V.P Kashim Shettima, too,  had to leave for Texas to attend the UA-Africa Trade Summit. 

The likely power vacuum also bothered his critics.

Of course the president might have decided to take his time till May 4, no matter what.