The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has debunked reports claiming that the President is scheduled to visit the United States on Tuesday for a meeting with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.
Ajayi, in a post on his official X handle on Monday, described the report by Sahara Reporters as “false and misleading,” saying it had fueled unnecessary speculation and uninformed commentaries.
“There’s a Sahara Reporters story that President Tinubu is going to the U.S. on Tuesday to see U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. That story is not true,” Ajayi wrote. “I can see that the fake news by Sahara has become the basis for some uninformed commentaries since yesterday.”
He stressed that if President Tinubu were to visit the White House, he would be meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, not the Vice President. “If President Tinubu is going to the White House, he won’t be going to see a Vice President,” he added.
Ajayi’s statement followed a viral report on social media claiming that President Tinubu was set to travel to Washington for “top-level diplomatic engagements” amid heightened global attention on Nigeria’s human rights and security issues.
The report had linked the purported trip to growing U.S. concerns about the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria and a recent post by Trump threatening possible military action against the country.
Last Saturday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that the United States might “go in guns blazing” if the Nigerian government failed to stop the killing of Christians, alleging that the administration in Abuja had done little to protect its citizens.
He said, “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, guns-a-blazing, to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Ajayi, however, urged Nigerians to disregard reports not emanating from official sources, noting that the Presidency would always communicate Tinubu’s foreign trips through verified government channels.