PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has returned to Abuja after attending the 2026 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, where he witnessed the signing of a trade agreement between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed the President’s return in a statement sent to News Point Nigeria on Saturday.
The statement is titled ‘President Tinubu returns to Nigeria after Abu Dhabi trip.’
The President departed Nigeria for Paris on Sunday, December 28, 2025, for the remaining portion of his annual leave.
He then proceeded to Abu Dhabi for the annual summit, which ran from January 11 to 15.
In 2025, the President was also in Abu Dhabi for the same summit.
On the sidelines of the summit, Nigeria and the UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
The agreement grants duty-free access for thousands of Nigerian products into the UAE market and aims to deepen economic cooperation, boost bilateral trade and investment, enhance technology transfer, and expand collaboration across key sectors, including energy, infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and renewable energy.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Jumoke Oduwole signed on behalf of Nigeria, while UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi signed for the Emirates. Both President Tinubu and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan witnessed the signing.
Speaking after the ceremony, Oduwole said the agreement would give Nigerian exporters a gateway to global markets.
She noted that Nigerian businesses would be able to open offices and subsidiaries in the UAE, while business owners could stay in the country for up to 90 days within a 12-month period.
In his address to the summit, President Tinubu announced that Nigeria aims to mobilise up to $30bn annually in climate and green industrial finance as part of efforts to accelerate energy transition reforms and expand electricity access nationwide.
He disclosed that Nigeria’s Climate Investment Platform would mobilise $500m for climate-resilient infrastructure, while the National Climate Change Fund is targeting a $2bn capitalisation.
The President also announced that a joint Nigeria-UAE Investopia summit would be held in Lagos in February.
The event is expected to bring together investors, innovators, policymakers, and business leaders to explore investment opportunities in Nigeria.
The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week is an annual global initiative convened by the UAE to promote discussions on sustainability, climate action, and energy transition.
The 2026 edition, themed “The Nexus of Next: All Systems Go,” focused on the integration required for sustainable transitions across finance, technology, energy, and human capital.
“Many people have left (the area),” he said. “We have a lot of fear.”
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has emerged as the main challenger to Museveni in recent years, styling himself the “ghetto president” after the Kampala slum areas where he grew up.
He has accused the government of “massive ballot stuffing” and attacking several of his party officials under cover of the internet blackout, which was imposed ahead of the polls and remained in place on Saturday.
African election observers said on Saturday they saw no evidence of ballot stuffing but denounced “reports of intimidation, arrest and abductions” targeting the opposition and civil society.
This “instilled fear and eroded public trust in the electoral process”, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan told reporters in Kampala.
He was representing election observers from the African Union, as well as regional bodies COMESA and IGAD for east and southern Africa.
Jonathan said the shutdown of the internet “disrupted effective observation” and “increased suspicion” but that the overall conduct of the polls on election day was “peaceful”.
Museveni’s ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, also had a commanding lead in parliamentary seats, according to provisional results. Ballots were still being counted.
Analysts have long viewed the election as a formality.
Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, has total control over the state and security apparatus and has ruthlessly crushed any challenger during his rule.
The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.
There were reports of election-related violence against the opposition.
Muwanga Kivumbi, member of parliament for Wine’s party in the Butambala area of central Uganda, told AFP’s Nairobi office by phone that security forces had killed 10 of his campaign agents after storming his home.
Police gave a different account, saying an “unspecified number” of people had been “put out of action” when opposition members planned to overrun and burn down a local tally centre and police station.