President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, held a private working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris, as his 10-day working leave entered its fifth day.
Photographs released by the State House showed both leaders in a warm handshake before proceeding into the palace. The meeting, which took place on September 10, 2025, marked Tinubu’s seventh visit to France since assuming office in May 2023.
Tinubu is currently on the second tranche of his annual leave, splitting time between France and the United Kingdom. His repeated stops in Paris suggest a deepening diplomatic bond with Macron. France remains one of Nigeria’s strongest partners in trade, energy, and defence.
This latest visit comes after Tinubu’s attendance at the BRICS Summit in Brazil and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development earlier this year. Both forums gave him platforms to market Nigeria as an investment destination while exploring partnerships in digital infrastructure, energy, and maritime security.
A Year of Non-Stop Diplomacy
So far in 2025, Tinubu has embarked on 15 international trips across 11 countries. These include summits, bilateral meetings, state visits, presidential inaugurations, and official leaves.
In January, he attended President John Dramani Mahama’s inauguration in Ghana, followed by the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit in the UAE. Later that month, he joined fellow leaders in Tanzania for the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit.
February saw him in France before travelling to Ethiopia for the 37th African Union Summit, where security and climate adaptation dominated the agenda. In April, Tinubu spent two weeks between the UK and France on a working visit. By mid-May, he was in Rome to attend the historic inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.
Between June and July, Tinubu toured the Caribbean and South America — delivering a speech before CARICOM leaders in Saint Lucia and later participating in the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In August, he travelled to Japan for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, with a stopover in Dubai on the way.
Wednesday’s meeting in Paris may underlines Nigeria’s growing importance to France eager to re-anchor its role in West Africa after setbacks in Mali and Niger.
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