By Pascal Chimezie
Is France under President Emmanuel Macron Nigeria’s friend or foe? This question has become urgent given President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s habit to always leave Nigeria to spend long days in France, in warm embrace of President Emmanuel Macron. Some days ago, Nigerians were told that Tinubu had a “lunch” with Emmanuel Macron, as if it was huge achievement for Nigeria.
He was also said to have had similar lunch with Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, after a meeting. Evidence to that effect was a controversial photograph shared online by his media aides, which many online “gen-zees” alleged was AI-generated. A close look at the image revealed a “Grok” watermark, an Artificial Intelligence application.
But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, insisted the picture was not AI-generated. “The photograph was taken with a mobile phone and initially had poor quality, which led the photographer to use the Grok application to enhance the image,” he explained.
It beggars believe. It is yet to be independently verified if Paul Kagame had such a meeting with Tinubu. However, Nigerians have queried not only the authenticity of the photograph, but also the propriety of employing artificial intelligence (AI) in president’s official communication.
Tinubu departed Lagos for Europe on Sunday, December 28, for what his media aide, Bayo Onanuga, described as president’s “continuing end-of-year break.” It was at the heels of America’s airstrikes in Buani forest of Sokoto state to dislodge ISIS/ISWAP terror groups that had been responsible for escalating insecurity, killings and abductions in Nigeria; something Nigerian government had been unable, or perhaps unwilling, to do over time.
One would have expected that the president, even if he was outside the country, would quickly come back home after the airstrikes to coordinate efforts and give directives to security agencies to ensure that fleeing terrorists did not escape. But this was not to be. The president, instead, saw the moment as opportunity to leave Nigeria in continuation of his “end-of-year break” in Europe.
Where exactly in Europe? Bayo Onanuga was not forthcoming. But from snippets of his “lunch” with Macron and Paul Kagame, we can now safely assume Tinubu is in France. But doing what exactly? Nobody knows.
When is he coming back? No one can tell. In fact, it is said that from Europe he would go on “official trip” to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate, for the “2026 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week”, an event vague in timeline specifics, at the instance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Is this how a serious president should run his country? Nigeria, at the moment, is bleeding in all fronts, economically, politically, and security-wise.
Since Tinubu left Nigeria, bandits attacks and abductions have escalated. On January 3, at least 40 people were reportedly killed by bandits at Kasuwan Daji market in Demo village, Niger state. The gunmen attacked the market, looted shops for their necessity, set stalls ablaze, and abducted several people. Among those abducted unfortunately included some students of St. Mary’s Catholic School Papiri who were recently abducted and released. They were re-abducted. The villagers said the terrorists were using the Kainji National Park as base.
Tinubu could only issue trite press statement from “Europe,” condemning attack, as usual, asking security agencies to “bring the perpetrators to book.”
Two days after, the bandits struck again, killing five officials of the old National Park Service in Oloka, Orire LGA of Oyo state. And many more attacks. Nigeria’s numerous socioeconomic political and security challenges require presence and decisive action of a President on whose table all buck stops. This responsibility cannot be out-sourced, nor discharged in autopilot.
Accountability is not only about how one spends money judiciously. It is also about how entrusted responsibility is discharged efficiently. President Tinubu cannot lounge out in France, having “lunch” with other dutiful presidents while his own house is left unattended, at a time Nyesom Wike, FCT minister, is riding roughshod over everybody. It is an attempt to recreate Emperor Nero’s indifference while Rome burned.
Someone might ask what is President Emmanuel Macron’s business in all of this? How does it concern him? It does concern him in many ways. And he should know it. If Nigeria should boil, it would spill over to everyone, including Macron. If Nigeria goes under, France will suffer heavy losses. Its vast business investments in Nigeria will be affected. It is in French’s self interest to see Nigeria well governed and remain a stable nation. It is in French interest that leadership insensitivity or dereliction, in any form or manner, is discouraged in Africa’s most populous Black nation.
Who else is in a better position to tell a friend the bitter truth other than one’s own friend? Emmanuel Macron is a very close friend to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is a well known fact that young Emmanuel Macron, when he was barely 24 years, served as French diplomatic intern at the French Embassy in Abuja. That was around 2002. Even though his station was Abuja, he was almost always in Lagos, from where he built personal connections and friendships with top Nigerian personalities, prominent among them, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then Governor of Lagos state. No one can actually say what is the common interest that binds them together and makes them almost inseparable.
In 2018, as French president, Macron visited Lagos. The city was virtually shut down for him by the usual Lagos traffic. Economic activities were paralyzed. It was an unprecedented rousing welcome. Of course, he did not miss visiting one of his favorite joints, the “Afikan Shrine,” where Femi Kuti, the sion of the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, performed.
Reflecting on the experience, Macron said, “It’s very emotional for me to come back to Nigeria 17 years after my stay. I didn’t imagine I’d be back in these conditions. The Shrine is an iconic cultural hub. And I say with a lot of humility that I recognize the importance of African culture… I like Nigeria a lot. It’s an appealing country. I’ve got a lot of memories that haven’t left me.”
Someone who speaks this way obviously should be considered a trusted friend. In recent times, however, Nigerians have had cause to question Macron’s friendship and actual role of France in Nigeria’s current leadership failure and economic woes. How much of counsel and influence does Emmanuel Macron have on Tinubu’s neo-liberal anti-people economic policies and programs impoverishing Nigerians?
Since Tinubu’s inauguration as president in 2023, Nigerians have not had a single respite. He has made life most unbearable, even though the previous APC government of Buhari did not do well. Today, Tinubu’s regime has made an already worse political economy more worse and compounded in the guise of reform. From “subsidy is gone” declaration, floating of the local currency, which saw Naira to US$ exchange hit N1,500 mark, high inflation, increases in electricity and telecommunications tariffs, mindless local and foreign borrowings, to mention just a few, these combined to cripple the Nigerian economy, closed down businesses and threw many Nigerians into the over saturated unemployment market. And Tinubu seems not bothered.
These neo-liberal anti-people policies appeared to have been hatched and crafted in France and implemented with viciousness in Nigeria against the Nigerian people. Does it not bother Emmanuel Macron that the World Bank estimates that over 130 million Nigerians now live below poverty line? As a supposed friend of Nigeria, does it not alarm him that insecurity, killing and mass abductions of school children and heavy ransoms are discouraging school children attendance, thereby increasing number of out of school children?
Take another instance, the new tax reform. Where on earth will a parliament, after rigorous scrutiny and debate over a draft bill, passed a harmonized bill to the president for his assent, only to have that harmonized bill tinkered with, some strange provisions allegedly inserted, even provisions that tend to oust court’s role in dispute resolution, and the president signed and gazetted it into law, expecting the citizens to obey? Can such a thing happen in France , where President Emmanuel Macron rules? Of course, if anyone tries it over there not only that he will lose his office immediately, he should also be sent to jail. If this is the case, why should it be different in Nigeria? Why should Nigerians tolerate it?
Another area of controversy over the new tax law is the alleged signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) by President Tinubu with a French tax consulting firm. Under Tinubu’s directive, the Nigeria Revenue Service had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France’s national tax authority, DGFiP, a French government agency in charge for public finance management.
Nigerians are raising concerns on possible granting of access or operational control to a foreign firm to oversee Nigeria’s tax systems and taxpayers data. The officials of Nigeria’s tax authority have said the MoU was for a technical assistance framework only. There is huge trust deficit currently existing between the government and the people that will not allow truth to prevail. If the main tax laws upon which the entire tax system is built could be enmeshed in allegations of manipulation, how can anyone be sure taxpayers’ vital information could not fall into the wrong persons, particularly foreign agents?
Nigerians are extremely good people. All they ask for is good and responsible leadership that truly cares for the people. Leadership that listens to the voice of the people, as those in Europe or America listen and care for their citizens. What is good for the goose, an old cliche says, is good for the gander. This cannot be asking for too much. It is time President Tinubu come home.
Pascal Chimezie writes from Lagos.
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Is France Nigeria’s Friend or Foe?
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