Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the Presidency to release daily, date stamped photographs and videos of President Bola Tinubu at the Kaaba, alleging that the President’s announced Umrah could be cover for a trip to France. The demand came hours after the Presidency said Tinubu would leave Abuja on Thursday for Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It also lands in the middle of a separate row over the President’s request for fresh foreign loans worth more than $20 billion.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), spoke through Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the party’s Presidential Campaign Council. He said intelligence available to him suggested Tinubu might make only a brief appearance in Makkah before proceeding to France. “Nigerians deserve verifiable proof of the President’s presence in Makkah and a transparent account of his daily activities in the Holy Land,” he said. The statement did not offer evidence for the France claim.
He also asked whether the trip was linked to the President’s health or to a reported $20 billion loan request involving a French business partner, and demanded the full itinerary and funding details. Atiku said he and other Nigerians would join the President in praying for the country, but cautioned against using religion insincerely. “No one should invoke the name of Almighty Allah in vain,” he said.
The Presidency’s account of the trip is different. In a statement on Wednesday, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga said the visit would give Tinubu time for spiritual reflection and prayers for Nigeria’s peace, unity and stability. He said the President would commission Nigerian Air Force equipment at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport before leaving, and would return next week. The Presidency had not publicly responded to Atiku’s allegations as of Thursday.
The exchange echoes a clash in September. According to the Presidency, Tinubu left Nigeria on August 30 for a working vacation that began in London and continued in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and businessman Vincent Bolloré. When Atiku claimed during that trip that the President had abandoned governance, Onanuga rejected the claim and said the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, was representing the President at events.
The loan Atiku referred to is now formally before the National Assembly. On Tuesday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio read a letter from Tinubu seeking approval for $20,517,755,901 and €1,045,083,643 under the 2026 to 2027 Supplementary External Borrowing Plan. The President said the funds would support infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, security and job creation across the 36 states and the FCT. Akpabio referred the request to the Senate committees on Local and Foreign Debts and Appropriations and asked them to report back within a week.
Atiku says the request proves an earlier warning right. On October 12, he claimed the government was preparing to borrow up to $20 billion in connection with the Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway, and he has since urged senators to withhold approval until the President publishes every project, contractor, loan term and repayment obligation. No lawmaker, he said, should “sign a blank cheque against Nigeria’s future”. Tinubu, for his part, told the Senate the projects were selected after technical and economic evaluation, while Akpabio noted that parts of the plan had featured in earlier budget and borrowing approvals.
The debt figures explain why the request has drawn attention. Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) put Nigeria’s total public debt at ₦166.79 trillion as of June 30, 2026, up from ₦87.38 trillion in June 2023, shortly after Tinubu took office. That is a rise of about 91 per cent in three years. External debt grew from $43.16 billion to $54.52 billion over the same period, so the dollar component of the new request alone equals more than a third of the current external debt stock.
Servicing that debt is already costly. DMO figures show Nigeria paid $870.73 million on external debt service in the second quarter of 2026, with interest accounting for more than half of the bill. The country’s outstanding Eurobonds stood at $18.55 billion as of June.
The Senate committees are expected to report next week, around the time the Presidency says Tinubu will return. Peter Agada, presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party, has asked lawmakers to defer the request until after the 2027 elections. The Presidency has yet to say whether it will release any images of the President’s activities in Makkah.