The Presidency has now confirmed that Vice President Kashim Shettima will represent Nigeria at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Meanwhile, President Tinubu is in Paris wining and dining with Macron. That makes it three consecutive UNGA sessions — 2024, 2025 and now 2026 — at which President Bola Tinubu will not personally lead Nigeria's delegation. Tinubu has attended UNGA only once since becoming President on 29 May 2023: the 78th Session in September 2023. Indeed, it is a constitutional responsibility for him to represent Nigeria at the UNGA. But why is the President of Africa's most populous country repeatedly absent from one of the world's most important annual gatherings of heads of state and government? What is he running away from? And the questions become more compelling because Nigerians had earlier been told that President Tinubu was expected to attend this year's UNGA and address the General Assembly on 23 September. It...