Jimoh Ibrahim Says Tinubu Can Move Freely in America, Because Apparently We Have Started Planning the UNGA Like a Nollywood Thriller

Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, has had to reassure Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu and members of his family can move freely around the United States when they attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Yes, freely.

Apparently, Nigerians have become so invested in the ongoing controversy over Tinubu’s US records that somebody had to answer the question nobody should ordinarily be asking before a presidential trip: “But sir, can he enter America without somebody arresting him?” Ibrahim says the Nigerian Mission to the UN has received no notification from the US government imposing any restriction on Tinubu’s movement. He also cited Section 11 of the 1947 UN-US Agreement, which provides protections against impediments to the transit of representatives of member states and their families to and from the UN headquarters district.

And honestly, this is where Nigerian politics has become premium entertainment.

Because imagine preparing for the UN General Assembly and your itinerary is no longer just airport, hotel, UN headquarters, meetings, dinner. Nigerians are now checking whether the President will be able to leave the hotel. People are practically monitoring New York as if Tinubu is going there for an episode of Mission Impossible: UN Edition.

Ibrahim even recalled that a former Nigerian president, specifically not Tinubu, had once been restricted to a 10-kilometre radius around the UN headquarters over a drug-related allegation, although he said that allegation was never proved. He stressed that an allegation is not a crime and that criminal accusations must go through due process and be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Meanwhile, the Presidency has already insisted that the current US court matter involving records about Tinubu is a civil Freedom of Information dispute, not a criminal trial, and that no US court has found him guilty of criminal wrongdoing.

But Nigerian social media has apparently appointed itself the combined FBI, CIA, Supreme Court and CNN.

Somebody is already asking whether Trump will meet Tinubu. Another person is discussing FBI files. Another is analysing immigration law. And somebody's uncle has probably typed, “Let him travel first.”

At this point, the UNGA is no longer just about Nigeria presenting its position to the world.

It has become a national group project to see whether everybody will allow Tinubu to finish his speech in peace.