President Bola Ahmed Tinubu returned to Lagos on Friday evening after a three-nation diplomatic and investment engagement tour to France, Kenya and Rwanda, touching down at about 7:12 p.m. at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja.
The return came on a day packed with policy, court and security developments. The Nigeria Immigration Service said it had begun a 30-day visa-free entry policy for Rwandan nationals, a move it said followed a directive from Tinubu. The announcement was made in a statement signed on Friday by Service Public Relations Officer DCI Akinsola Akinlabi.
Elsewhere, Dangote Petroleum Refinery took the Federal Government to court over fresh fuel import licences issued to oil marketing companies. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had issued fresh fuel import licences to major petroleum marketers in 2026, setting up a dispute over imports at a time when domestic refining remains central to the national fuel debate. The refinery’s legal challenge puts fresh pressure on a policy area that has already drawn intense scrutiny from investors and consumers alike.
In Abuja, the Federal High Court deferred until Monday its hearing of the suit challenging former President Goodluck Jonathan’s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election. The Independent National Electoral Commission did not send legal representation to court on Friday in the case, extending a legal fight that could shape the field ahead of 2027.
Politics was further sharpened by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who asked Tinubu and Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani to immediately release former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai. Atiku described El-Rufai’s continued detention as “cruel, unjustifiable, and deeply troubling,” a sharp public rebuke that added to the day’s political tension.
Security concerns also deepened in Oyo State, where armed terrorists attacked three schools in Orire Local Government Area on Friday, killing an assistant headmaster and abducting many pupils and teachers. The schools affected were Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, Community Grammar School, Esiele, and L.A. Primary School, a grim reminder that the country’s school corridors remain vulnerable.
In Lagos, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said the Federal High Court in Ikoyi had remanded social media influencer Okoro Nkiruka, popularly known as Blessing CEO, in its custody over an alleged N36m fraud. The agency said she was arraigned by its Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 before Justice D.I. Dipeolu on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and stealing.
Economic pressure was also evident in new figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, which said Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 15.69 per cent in April 2026 from 15.38 per cent in March. The bureau’s Consumer Price Index report, released on Friday, linked the increase to rising food, transport, hospitality and healthcare costs, keeping price pressure firmly in view for households already stretched by daily expenses.
INEC said all 22 registered political parties in Nigeria successfully submitted their membership registers in compliance with the Electoral Act 2026 ahead of the 2027 general election. That puts the country’s electoral calendar on track even as courts, parties and regulators continue to test the rules that will govern the next vote.
Friday’s events left Tinubu returning to a capital already moving on multiple fronts: foreign policy, fuel regulation, election cases, crime, insecurity and inflation. The immediate question is not whether the agenda has widened, but which of these fronts will define the political weather first.
