A supposed diplomatic meeting at the G20 Summit between President Bola Tinubu and his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, may not be possible as the U.S. President will not personally attend the summit taking place in South Africa.
After the presidency refuted reports that President Tinubu would be travelling to the United States to meet Trump administration officials, attention had shifted to the November 20 G20 Summit as the next possible venue for talks with the U.S. President.
However, the speculated meeting will not be held as Trump will be skipping the summit.
According to a Reuters report on July 30, Trump had said he might not attend the summit in Durban due to “problems with South Africa” and its “very bad policies.”
“I think maybe I’ll send somebody else because I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa. They have some very bad policies,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to media reports, while consultations between Nigeria and the United States are ongoing, there are currently no concrete plans for a face-to-face engagement between both leaders in the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C.
Tinubu was earlier reported to be travelling to the U.S. on Tuesday to hold high-level discussions aimed at easing recent diplomatic tensions after Trump’s threat to halt aid and possibly deploy U.S. troops to Nigeria over the alleged killing of Christians in the country.
But reacting, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, described the report as fake news.
According to Ajayi, there was no planned trip or meeting between President Tinubu and the U.S. Vice President.
In a post on his X handle on Monday, Ajayi wrote: “There is a Sahara Reporters story that President Tinubu is going to the U.S. on Tuesday to see U.S. Vice President JD Vance. That story is not true. I can see that the fake news by Sahara has become the basis for some uninformed commentaries since yesterday.
“If President Tinubu is going to the White House, he won’t be going to see a vice president.”
The speculation that Tinubu could visit the U.S. followed Trump’s threat of possible American military intervention in Nigeria over alleged persecution and killing of Christians
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’” Trump declared.
The Nigerian Presidency, however, dismissed the claims as a “mischaracterisation of Nigeria’s religious landscape,” insisting that the government upholds constitutional protections for citizens of all faiths.
“Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty,” President Tinubu said.
“Since 2023, our administration has maintained active engagement with both Christian and Muslim leaders while addressing security challenges that affect all citizens,” he added.
Tinubu’s media aide, Daniel Bwala, earlier confirmed that both leaders share a mutual commitment to counterterrorism and global security.
He described Tinubu’s government as one that has “built effectively on the security cooperation initiated under Trump’s previous administration.”
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