When President Ahmed Bola Tinubu departed for London on Wednesday last week, to spend two weeks out of his annual leave, there was hardly a whimper of disapproval. I guess this could be because in recent years, we have become accustomed to our leaders jetting out to spend time away from the country, and London has been their preferred destination.
President Muhammadu Buhari started this constant pilgrimage to London. When complaints filled the media space, his handlers explained that his doctors and medical records were domiciled in London thus necessitating the frequent visits. In any case, President Buhari never made it a habit to spend his spare time anywhere in Nigeria, outside his village Daura, when he was not on a trip to London.
President Tinubu has just returned from a trip to China from where he detoured to spend a few days in London before touching down in Abuja on September 15. Now, two weeks after, arrangements were made for him again to spend another two weeks as part of his annual vacation in London. He still has some days as his annual vacation to spend later in the year and if care is not taken, you will hear that his destination would be London again.
I would dare to suggest that many suitable places in Nigeria could serve as convenient retreats for the president. Over many years some prominent destinations within the country have been well-appreciated by past heads of government. During the colonial era, Jos, the capital of Plateau Province was a favourite, constantly visited by our colonial overlords because of the town’s temperate climate and consequent convivial atmosphere. When Queen Elizabeth II, our reigning monarch, came on a state visit to Nigeria in 1956, she attended the durbar in Kaduna and was promptly whisked away to Jos to spend the weekend.
The last colonial Governor of Northern Nigeria (1957-62), Sir Gawain Bell, loved Jos to distraction. In his memoir, An Imperial Twilight, Gawain Bell described Jos and its environment in effusive terms. He wrote: “At Jos … the Governor had a holiday bungalow. It was called ‘Tudun Wada’. Its walls were white-washed, its roof was thatched and all its woodwork was black. It might have been a cottage in Devon or Cornwall. We went to Jos for long weekends three or four times a year. It was a place of happiness and calm, and for a short season, the country around provided wonderful snipe shooting. Jos could be approached by air, by road or by rail, and all three ways provided a different form of delight. Flying in, one saw in a glance the sharp rise from plain to plateau, and the rapid change of vegetation from bush to open country.
“The journey by laterite road, at first red and dusty and hot took one, as one approached the escarpment, through tumbled ravines and corries to emerge finally onto the cool plateau. But all three, the rail journey, at often less than 20 miles an hour, was the most satisfying, for the climb was steep and slow. We would leave Kaduna in the afternoon and reach Jos an hour or two after dawn.
“In the winter months, from January to March, duck and geese migrating northwards back to Europe watered and rested for several weeks on the lakes and marshes in the northern parts of the country, the product of summer rains. These open areas of water, many of which would dry out later in the year provided great numbers and variety of birds and a great deal of exciting shooting. They gave one, too, those wonderful moments when the dawn comes up, when the air is fresh and cool when one‘s ears are filled with the sound of wakening wildlife.”
President Shehu Shagari, (1979-83) hardly spent his vacation outside the country, not even in Sokoto, the capital of his home state. He preferred Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State or Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State. In his autobiography, Beckoned to Serve, Shagari wrote: “I and my family occasionally took a few days’ holidays, especially at Easter, to the Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State where there is a presidential lodge. Here, as in Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross Rivers State which we also used for vacations, my two wives and children enjoyed watching animals. The children also liked to swim in the Wikki warm springs which supply a pleasant pool near the lodge at Yankari.”
President Olusegun Obasanjo, though a widely travelled person still preferred spending his spare time within the country. It is either Otta in his native Ogun State or Jos. He loved Jos a great deal and that probably influenced his decision in the days of his military presidency to establish the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, a place of idyllic physical beauty, close to Jos. When he returned as president in 1999, he gave prominence to the National Institute. The first ministerial retreat was held there and also the institute was being prepared to host part of the events for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2003) when the tragedy of communal clashes befell Plateau State.
With these destinations available, and probably many more, does our president need to jet out for vacation? The answer, from my perspective, is in the negative.
By Gambo Dori