Tinubu to ‘Sit Close to Trump’, Address UN Assembly in September

President Bola Tinubu will sit close to United States President Donald Trump during this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, where he is also scheduled to address world leaders in September.

Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, disclosed this on Wednesday after meeting with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

According to Ibrahim, the President has accepted an invitation to attend the annual UN gathering and will deliver a speech highlighting the achievements of his administration’s reforms.

“I can tell you the President has graciously agreed to attend the UNGA meeting of the United Nations,” Ibrahim said.

“He has a speech to give to the whole world about his reform success in Nigeria, and that has been slated for September. So Nigeria will be effectively in UNGA.”

Ibrahim also revealed that Tinubu would be seated “very, very close” to Trump in the front row during the General Debate of the UN General Assembly.

Asked whether the Nigerian leader would hold a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the event, Ibrahim said, “Well, I won’t be able to tell you that, but I can tell you clearly that President Tinubu will be sitting very, very close to Donald Trump in the front row of the United Nations General Assembly. Don’t ask me how and how that was arranged, but he will be sitting.”

He added that Tinubu’s speech has been scheduled for about 10:45 a.m. New York time, around 2:00 p.m. in Nigeria, to allow Nigerians to watch the address live.

“He will be speaking at a time that Nigeria will not be sleeping. So everybody will listen and see live what the President will be delivering,” he said.

The ambassador also disclosed that Tinubu would attend a limited number of side events on power generation, education and hospital management during the UN gathering.

In addition, he said the President would work with the United Nations to strengthen border policing across West Africa to address porous borders and rising cross-border insecurity.

“The President reiterated his commitment to border policing. This time around, the President will be working with the United Nations to look into the West Africa border,” Ibrahim said.

“A lot of peacekeeping effort is coming in here. I can assure you the President is going to put a lot of effort into border policing for West African countries.”