An association of clergymen have criticised President Bola Tinubu’s trip to the United Kingdom, UK, where he is being hosted on a state visit following an invitation by King Charles III.

Tinubu departed Nigeria for the UK on Tuesday alongside his wife, First Lady Oluremi, aides and several top government officials. The trip is the first state visit to the UK by a Nigerian leader in 37 years.

However, the President’s trip came hours after a bomb blasts in Maiduguri, Borno State, which left about 23 persons dead and hundreds injured. The Maiduguri bombings is the latest in a series of high profile terror attacks in different parts of the country in recent days, prompting some Nigerians, including opposition politicians, to fault the President’s UK visit.

Reacting to the development in a statement signed by Rev Tony Uzo Anthony, released late on Tuesday night, the Concerned Igbo Ministers, an association of Igbo Christian clergymen, described Tinubu’s UK trip as a “callous abandonment of a nation bleeding to death”.

The clergymen accused Tinubu of choosing red carpets and photo-ops over the blood of Nigerian citizens.

“We, the Concerned Igbo Ministers, view with utter disgust and righteous anger the spectacle of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu parading in London while Nigeria burns.

“At the very moment a suicide bomber unleashes carnage in Borno, while mass slaughter continues unabated across the North and even in the President’s own backyard in Osun State and the entire Western region, the so-called leader chooses red carpets, handshakes with King Charles III and photo-ops with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the blood of his citizens,” the clergymen said.

According to the clerics, Tinubu should have called off the UK trip and instead head to Maiduguri to assess the carnage from the bomb blasts and empathize with the people.

“This is not leadership. This is criminal negligence. Any patriotic world leader confronted with such heightened insecurity would have immediately cancelled the trip, flown to the scenes of slaughter, comforted the victims and taken personal command of the crisis. Instead, President Tinubu has chosen foreign diplomacy over the lives of Nigerians.

“The Chatham House analysis was brutally clear: diplomacy alone will not fix Nigeria’s problems. Yet Tinubu’s government, through its Information Minister, dismisses all criticism as “ignorance and mischief.” We reject that arrogant nonsense. The blood flowing in Borno, the corpses in the North, and the fear gripping Osun State are not figments of anyone’s imagination – they are the direct consequence of a government that has lost both the will and the capacity to protect its people,” the statement added.

The pan-Igbo association stressed that the facts on the ground expose the lie that Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is Nigeria’s problem.

Rather, according to them, Kanu’s decision to set up the Eastern Security Network, ESN, has proved to be inspired as it has helped to ensure insecurity in the South-East. Instead of condemning Kanu, the clerics said he should be commended, and his action emulated by other geopolitical zones

“On the contrary, he remains the only leader with a workable vision for security. His timely establishment of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) has transformed the South-East into the safest region in the country today – a reality no amount of propaganda can erase. While the rest of Nigeria drowns in blood, the East stands as a shining exception because of IPOB’s proactive defence of its people,” they added.

The clerics in the same vein urged Tinubu to use the UK trip to facilitate Nnamdi Kanu’s release from detention. They noted that the real reason Kanu is in detention is Britain’s fear of a sovereign Biafra nation.

The statement added, “Therefore, there is only one worthwhile mission President Tinubu can accomplish during this ill-timed UK visit: he must use the occasion to formally and urgently request His Majesty King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to facilitate the immediate, unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from his unjust and prolonged detention.

“It is an open secret that British institutional fear of a sovereign Biafra is the real chain holding Mazi Nnamdi Kanu captive. The British Government remains one of the critical parties that must be assuaged for justice to be done. President Tinubu now has the perfect platform – face-to-face with the very authorities whose influence matters – to end this national shame.

“We urge the President to reach the British leadership without further delay and secure Nnamdi Kanu’s freedom. Anything less will confirm that this government cares more about foreign validation than the lives and aspirations of its people. The blood of slain Nigerians cries out from the ground. History and the Igbo nation will not forgive continued indifference.”