President Bola Tinubu spent his Wednesday afternoon in a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris as his 10-day working leave enters its fifth day.
Pictures released by the State House Media Office on Wednesday afternoon showed Tinubu and Macron in a warm handshake as the latter received the President at the Élysée Palace.
The two leaders met amid the political tension in France, where nationwide unrest broke out across the country on Wednesday.
Protesters blocked roads, set fires and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas, as anger grows against the country’s political class.
CNN reports that the interior ministry said 473 people had been detained, with 80,000 police deployed nationwide, including 6,000 in Paris. The education ministry said around 100 schools were disrupted and 27 fully blocked.
The protests come as the country’s new Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, enters office.
Appointed by President Macron on Tuesday, former defence minister Lecornu succeeds François Bayrou, who was ousted after losing a confidence vote in parliament over his unpopular plan to tame the deficit.
Critics say appointing a Macron loyalist on such a day amounts to a baptism of fire for Lecornu.
BBC reported that in the lead-up to Wednesday’s protests, led by grassroots movement ‘Let’s Block Everything,’ organisers urged people to take part in acts of civil disobedience against “austerity, contempt and humiliation.”
A group of young protesters outside Gare du Nord said they were taking to the streets in “solidarity” with people in precarious situations across France.
“We are here because we are very tired of how Macron has been handling the situation” of France’s spiralling debt, said Alex, 25, adding he had no faith in the new prime minister not to “repeat the cycle.”
In a brief speech following the handover of power at the Prime Minister’s residence, Lecornu thanked Bayrou for his work and promised the French people that “We’ll get there.”
“The instability and the political crisis we are going through demand sobriety and humility,” Lecornu said.
“We will have to be more creative, more serious, in the way we work with the opposition,” he added, before announcing he would start holding talks with political parties and trade unions immediately.
In the first nine months of 2025, the President has undertaken 15 international trips across 11 countries.
These include high-level summits, bilateral engagements, presidential inaugurations, and annual leaves.
On January 6, Tinubu kicked off his diplomatic itinerary with a visit to Accra, the capital of the Republic of Ghana, to attend the inauguration of President-elect John Dramani Mahama on January 7.
He was in the United Arab Emirates, to attend the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit, from January 12 – 16, where he held side meetings with Gulf investors and officials on trade and energy cooperation.
From January 27-28, he visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to participate in the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit.
February saw the President travel to France before attending the 37th African Union Summit in Ethiopia, where he joined other African leaders in discussions on regional security, climate adaptation, and continental trade integration under the AfCFTA.
From April 2-21, President Tinubu embarked on a two-week working visit that included France and the United Kingdom.
In mid-May, the President travelled to Vatican City, attending the historic inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in Rome.
From June 28 to July 4, Tinubu undertook a landmark state visit to Saint Lucia, where he addressed CARICOM leaders in Castries.
From Saint Lucia, he proceeded to Brazil, arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the 17th BRICS Summit (July 4–7).
The Brazil visit continued into August, with President Tinubu returning for a two-day state visit.
This came after he visited Japan in the same month to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, where he pitched Nigeria’s investment readiness to Japanese multinationals and met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on maritime security and digital infrastructure.
Before he arrived in Japan, Tinubu and his entourage stopped over in Dubai, UAE, on August 15 and arrived in Yokohama early in the morning on August 18.
It was his second visit to the Gulf state within the year.
In September, he again embarked on a working vacation to the United Kingdom and France, his third visit to Paris this year and second to London.
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