Nigeria, Sept. 30 -- Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, has defended President Bola Tinubu's absence from the 81st United Nations General Assembly, noting that many other countries' leaders were represented at the gathering.

"Most of the speakers were represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Vice President. Do you want President Tinubu to get into the plane, move down to New York and speak for 15 minutes when 60 per cent of the speaking list are represented?" he said.

Mr Ibrahim argued that the president did not need to leave other pressing national issues for the UN General Assembly in New York when several world leaders were also absent.

He pointed out that the presidents of South A...