A picture has emerged showing President Tinubu in deep sleep during the African Union session.
Newsone Nigeria reports that Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President, was sighted sleeping during the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) earlier on Saturday.
This online news platform understands that President Tinubu departed Nigeria on Thursday to attend the assembly of heads of state and government convened to discuss mainly about education.
The Nigerian leader appeared to be sleeping during the ordinary session on Saturday while his aide-de-camp, Colonel Nurudeen Alowonle Yusuf, took notes closely behind him.
President Tinubu’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, had said the president will also participate in “high-level meetings on institutional reforms of the African Union; peace and security; specific thematic issues such as climate change, as well as modalities of participation and priorities of the continental body in the G20.”
The presidency has yet to react to the already circulating photo and what it means for concerns about Mr Tinubu’s age and composure at international events.
The president was earlier appointed as Champion of Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership by the AU. Mr Ngelale announced the appointment via a letter from the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
“President Tinubu was appointed on the recommendation of the Committee of Heads of State and Government of Africa CDC, under the leadership of His Excellency, President Azali Assoumani, President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union,” he said.
What President Tinubu told African leaders at African Union session
President Tinubu while addressing leaders at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, said his administration will engage the African Union Commission in collaboration with member states to ensure that the bank takes off as scheduled in 2028.
The president affirmed that Africa’s success in conclusively addressing its challenges hinges on the firmness of its resolution, built on a foundation of deep-rooted solidarity, if it is to avoid perpetuating existing problems and creating new ones.
“As a continent and as individual nations, we face strong headwinds and difficult hurdles threatening to complicate our mission to bring qualitative democratic governance and economic development to our people. Many of these obstacles, such as climate change and unfair patterns of global trade, are largely not of our making. However, some of the pitfalls, including coup-birthed autocracies and the deleterious tinkering with constitutional tenure provisions, are developmental cancers we as Africans are giving to ourselves,” he stated.
Speaking on the military takeovers in the Republics of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and the exit of three of these nations from ECOWAS, the president said disagreements over the unconstitutional changes of government should not mean a permanent rupture of the abiding lines of regional affinity and cooperation.
“The drive for a peaceful, strong, and united West Africa is bigger than any one person or group of people. The bonds of history, culture, commerce, geography, and brotherhood hold deep meaning for our people. Thus, out of the dust and fog of misunderstanding and acrimony, we must seize the chance to create a new people-centric era of trust and accord.
“To all who care to listen, I declare that if you come to the table to discuss important matters in good faith, you will find Nigeria and ECOWAS already sitting there waiting to greet you as the brother that you are,” President Tinubu said.
On education, which is the theme of this year’s summit, the president said education is the core ingredient in the process of evolving creative solutions to the unique challenges long confronting the continent.
“In helping to achieve the Agenda 2063 objective of a peaceful, united and prosperous Africa, I consider African education, not only in the narrow context of the benign use of science and technology to improve the material standards of our people, but also in the nuanced appreciation of the fact that Africa must also become better educated in the humane art of democratic practice, diplomacy, and conflict resolution without violence.
“This year’s theme encourages us to remodel our educational systems to fit these goals. In Nigeria, my administration is devoting ample resources to education at all levels. From redesigning our school feeding programmes and academic curricula to making ourselves an Information and Communication Technology hub, through which we shall bring more youths into the classroom and furnish them with the tools required to flourish in the global economy of the 21st century,” he said.
The president used the occasion to extend invitation to the Africa Counter-Terrorism Summit scheduled to take place in April 2024, in Abuja, stating that the summit aims to expand discussions beyond military and law enforcement remedies to comprehensively tackle the root causes of violent extremism, such as poverty, inadequate political access, and the propagation of hateful ideologies.
