The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the continued absence of President Bola Tinubu from the country, while Vice President Kashim Shettima is also outside Nigeria, as a dangerous disregard for the Constitution.
The party said the situation amounts to a violation of Section 145 of the Constitution.
Reacting on Tuesday through its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said Section 145 requires the President, when proceeding on vacation for a period of up to 21 days, to transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, after which the Vice President performs the functions of Acting President.
“President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August and has now been away for more than 21 days. We therefore demand to know whether the required declaration was transmitted by the President. If he did not, we would like to know why the National Assembly has ignored Section 145 of the Constitution,” the party said.
The ADC rejected the Presidency’s explanation that the President was on a “working vacation” or that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, would represent President Tinubu at official events, dismissing it as “an absurdity that raises more questions than it answers”.
“Representing the President at events and ceremonies does not confer constitutional powers. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation is a mere appointee of the President. He may attend events or deliver speeches on the President’s behalf, but he cannot exercise the constitutional powers of the President or Acting President,” the ADC said.
“Representation is not governance. Attendance at official functions is not presidential authority. Nigeria cannot be governed through ceremonial proxies, telephone calls and press statements issued from foreign capitals.”
The party said the claim that the President has continued to direct national affairs from abroad only “compounds the absurdity”, noting that a “working vacation” does not remove the President’s constitutional obligations under Section 145.
“There is no constitutional category known as a ‘working vacation’. Presidential authority cannot be transferred by convenience, protocol or press statement. Nigeria is a constitutional democracy, not a private enterprise to be managed remotely from a holiday destination,” the party said.
The ADC said it was particularly troubling that the President and Vice President were simultaneously absent while Nigerians confronted worsening insecurity, unemployment and an unbearable cost-of-living crisis.
The party also described as a “national disgrace” the fact that French President Emmanuel Macron is in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, while President Tinubu is vacationing in Paris.
“The irony would be amusing if it were not a national disgrace. At a time when world leaders are advancing their countries’ interests at the UN General Assembly, Nigeria’s President is holed up in the French capital while his host has left to pursue his own country’s national interest.
“President Tinubu cannot be vacationing in Paris while President Macron is in New York representing France and expect Nigerians to accept that it is okay for their President to continue to hang around in a country after the host has left to attend to more important things. This is not merely poor optics. It is a national embarrassment,” the ADC said.
The party called on the Presidency and National Assembly to provide a direct answer to one question: “Who presently exercises the constitutional powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and under what provision of the Constitution?”