Nigerian president to visit Kenya days after Ruto’s controversial remarks
Nigerian president to visit Kenya days after Ruto's controversial remarks
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is set to arrive in Kenya in the coming days as part of a wider two-week diplomatic tour of France, Kenya, and Rwanda, coming at a time when recent online exchanges between him and President William Ruto have drawn continental attention and sparked heated debate across social media platforms.
According to a statement from the Western country’s Presidential Spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu will depart Abuja today, first heading to France before proceeding to Nairobi, Kenya, where he will attend the Africa-France Summit scheduled to begin on May 11.
In Nairobi, the summit will be co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and President William Ruto and is expected to bring together African leaders and French officials to discuss key continental priorities.
The summit is also expected to address other important matters, including energy transition, green industrialisation, digital transformation, and reforms in global financing systems.
The summit, themed “Africa Forward: Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”, will also focus on climate action, infrastructure development, youth empowerment, technological advancement, and peace-building initiatives across Africa.
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President Tinubu is expected to use the Nairobi platform to advance Nigeria’s economic reform agenda, highlight investment opportunities, and hold bilateral meetings with global and African business leaders on the sidelines of the summit, according to a Nigerian publication, This Day.
After concluding his engagements in Kenya on May 12, Tinubu will travel to Kigali, Rwanda, to attend the Africa CEO Forum taking place between May 14 and 15. At the forum, over 2,000 business leaders and policymakers will deliberate on strategies for accelerating intra-African trade and industrial growth.
The visit comes against the backdrop of recent public exchanges between the two leaders that have generated widespread reactions online.
This was particularly after Tinubu previously commented that Nigerians were “better off than Kenyans” amid fuel price pressures, remarks that were strongly criticised by Kenyan social media users.
The situation was further amplified after President Ruto sparked backlash when he remarked during a diaspora engagement in Italy that Nigerian-accented English could be difficult to understand, comments that were widely condemned across Nigeria and beyond.
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