Tinubu, Shettima Away From The Country – What Constitution Says, What Their Absence Means

Prominent Nigerians and some leaders of opposition parties have weighed in on the absence of the nation’s President and Vice President Bola Tinubu and Kassim Shettima respectively from the country, creating some tension, anxiety and uncertainty, with Nigerians wondering if the chain of command has not been breached.

As at the time of filing this report, President Bola Tinubu is out of the country on what his media handlers described as his annual vacation. He (President Tinubu) departed the country on August 30 on a three-week leave, touching down in London, the capital of the United Kingdom, where he stayed for two weeks before moving to Paris, the French capital, where he is currently.

His office however on Monday announced that the President had extended his stay abroad prompting suggestion that the country might actually be running on autopilot given the fact that he is not attending the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) holding in New York.

Vice President Kashim Shettima however, is standing in for him at the global event in the United States of America which means that as of now, the two leaders are out of the country leaving the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, in charge of the country.

While Shettima departed the country for the U.S. on Monday, Senator Akpabio on the same day returned to the country from Rome, the Italian capital, from vacation where he reportedly went on Christian pilgrimage.

Observers are however, not just worried that the two leaders are not in the country but are concerned that there has been no clear sign that power was constitutionally transmuted regarding the chain of authority as prescribed in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Those who spoke in different chats with Saturday Telegraph include a former Vice President of the country and the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; a Constitution lawyer and scholar, Professor Itse Sagay.

Apart from Professor Sagay, two other senior lawyers, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba and Mr. Laolu Owolabi, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, also commented on the development.

The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, and the National Publicity Secretary of the Taminu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party also spoke on the matter as well as a chieftain of the PDP, Chief Segun Sowunmi.

Sagay

Reacting to the development in a telephone chat, Professor Sagay who described it as not desirable, blamed it on a lack of coordination at the nation’s top leadership hierarchy. “It’s not desirable. They did not plan their trips where they should coordinate.

One of them should be in the country at all times,” he said. Asked if they had they flouted any law of the land by this, he said, “I’m not aware but at least there is some protocol, I don’t know what to call it, some rule that both President and Vice President should not be out of the country at the same time.

“So while one is in, while one is leaving, the other has to be there because of the issue of succession. So it is not desirable at all. On the implication for the country, the senior lawyer said, “It’s not good at all. It’s not a desirable state of affairs and I think the attention of the President should be drawn to it, so that they can avoid it in the future.”

Atiku

Alhaji Abubakar blamed the apparent lack of coordination in terms of transmitting power from the president to the next in line. Speaking through the Director, Strategic Communication, ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Phrank Shaibu,

the former number two man said, “Nigeria is not a private company that its three highest-ranking political officeholders can run casually from different foreign capitals without Nigerians being given clear information about where constitutional executive authority presently resides.

“The President has been outside the country since August 30. The Vice President is abroad representing Nigeria at the United Nations, while the Senate President has also reportedly travelled outside the country.

The constitutional issue is not whether government officials are permitted to travel.” Alhaji Atiku stated that the issue is whether the constitutional procedure designed to guarantee an unambiguous chain of authority during a presidential vacation has been followed, and whether Nigerians have been properly informed.

Citing Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) he stated that the All Progressives Congress government has left more than 200 million Nigerians guessing who is exercising presidential powers at this particular moment.

“The Presidency should therefore clarify one simple fact: Was the written declaration contemplated by Section 145 transmitted to the National Assembly, and who is presently exercising the functions of President? “Nigeria is too important to be governed by ambiguity, and constitutional authority is too serious to be reduced to guesswork from foreign capitals.”

PRP

Echoing the same sentiment, Baba-Ahmed on behalf of his party, accused the Presidency of disrespectful conduct and disdain for the nation’s ground norm in the way and manner the situation has played out. “Their absence speaks loudly about disrespect for the letters and the spirit of the constitution.

President Tinubu obviously has no problem running this country aground, even remotely. He may equally consider as unimportant having a leader in the country at all times. “Presidents who take long vacations in other peoples’ countries and return to theirs only when it pleases them, send loud messages to their countries, that public perceptions and account- ability are unimportant.

“Perhaps he understands that his physical presence has had no impact on millions of beleaguered Nigerians since 2023. Nigerians who think it is important for the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to comply with constitutional requirements will now be better informed.

We are on auto pilot.” While stating that Nigerians should demand greater seriousness in governance, he added that, “we, a nation of 250 million people, are desperately seeking assurances that we matter to our leaders but now know we are on our own.

“Still, we must insist: President Tinubu should not continue to treat governance as a matter of personal convenience. If he is unable to respect the constitution, and is aided by a legislature unwilling to demand accountability, then Nigerians should ask him to step down. If he will not, then we should draw the line for him in 2027.

PDP faction

The PDP on its part accused the current leadership of abandonment while the country is currently contending with numerous challenges. In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary of the Interim National Working Committee, Mr. Ini Ememobong, on Friday, the party stated that the situation is disappointing just as it is insulting to Nigerians.

“It is disappointing because no reasonable parent or caretaker goes on vacation when his house is burning. The underlying tone of the message is that Nigerians, no matter how highly or lowly placed, should not question why the President-a servant of the Nigerian people, should be held accountable for his decision to be absent from the meeting of global leaders.

“We must remind the President and the Presidency that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sought this job, and by being sworn in, he became the servant, not lord and master, of the country and all Nigerians, who have a right to question how he governs them.

“It is therefore necessary to question why the President will be going on vacation at a time insecurity is on a steady rise, the macroeconomic indices are looking bleak, and the citizens are fed daily with renewed hopelessness. The President’s action is in stark opposition to the existential reality of most Nigerians,” the statement read.

Agbakoba

Dr. Agbakoba however, maintained that the two have not breached any law of the country by the development but added that in the event that he would be leaving the country, President Tinubu should as a matter of law transmit power to his deputy.

He argued that there has to be some form of distinction between such (transmission of power) and whether the two could be out of the country at the same time.

“There is no law prohibiting the absence of the President, vice president and president of the senate at the same time. “The law requiring the president to transmit power to the vice president if absent from the country for a period in excess of 21 days seems confusing but it’s different from the issue of whether all three can be out of Nigeria at the same time and period.

“I think your question hints more at the perception of having Nigeria’s 3 top political leaders out at the same time but that’s different from the actual legal position,” the pro democracy activist stated.

Owolabi

Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Owolabi agreed with Dr. Agbakoba on the fact that there appears to be some form of lacuna in the laws for situations such as this. “The Constitution is silent on the absence of the President, Vice President and Senate President from the country at the same time.

The Constitution could not have envisaged the absence of the three of them at the same time, as to make a provision for such vacuum. “The operative word in Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, which requires that the President transmits a written declaration when he is “proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office.”

“To activate Section 145(2) there must be evidence that the President is on vacation. In this instance, the President is on what he called a working vacation which has not prevented him from discharging the functions of his office,” he said.

Sowunmi

Sowunmi defended the absence, saying that modern technology has made it possible for the government to function effectively regardless of the location of its principal officers.

He said that Nigeria had moved beyond the era when the physical presence of the President in the country was considered essential for government to function, adding that technological advancement has changed the way governments operate across the world, making it possible for leaders to communicate, receive information and take decisions from virtually anywhere.

“One of the things that tells us that our democracy and this government belong to the people is that we have left the days of panicking when a President travels and you would be afraid that the Vice President is trying to work with the Senate President for his impeachment and all those kinds of funny things that used to happen in the past,” he said.

Sowunmi added that the relationship among the country’s top officials should be viewed within the context of modern governance rather than through the lens of past political experiences. “Right now, we have two keys on the same pod.

People are working seamlessly and they are busy. With the way the world is going now, we cannot afford the inconvenience of having something to do in France and another thing to do in Washington, and because people are talking carelessly on social media, both of them cannot be busy doing that,” he said.

He argued that the Presidency should not be viewed as an office occupied by only one individual, stressing that the government continues to function through institutions and officials even when the President is out of the country.

“The Presidency is an institution that contains a lot of people. If the President travels out and he is working there, if the Vice President is at the United Nations, then he has gone there and the Presidency and the country have gone there.

“If there is any need for the President to take decisions from wherever he is, he can take those decisions, and if there is any need for anybody to represent the President, he has enough people to represent him,” Sowunmi said.

The PDP chieftain said that Nigeria was gradually moving towards a more stable system of governance, urging the media and other opinion forming institutions to help Nigerians understand the changing nature of government in a technology-driven world.

“We have left the dark era. This is an era where the world is global, and Nigeria is trying to get to a stage where other people have got to,” he said. Sowunmi also questioned whether the President should have abandoned official engagements abroad simply because of concerns over his absence from Nigeria.

“If it is the immediate event that brought the conversation, then the question to ask is: should the President not have completed those transactions he was doing or trying to facilitate for the country?

“For instance, will you say that the agreement for a new seaport should not be appended to? Is it that the $700 million gas project should not be attended to?

Are we saying that the big-envelope businesses should not be attended to?” he asked He argued that Nigeria’s current political and economic realities were different from those of previous decades.

“The Nigeria that the people who are talking know is not the Nigeria of now. The business model we are running now is different. Whatever experience they have is that of 1998 or 1999.

The experience of this modern time is beyond them, and they are just creating unnecessary storm in a teacup,” he said. Sowunmi urged Nigerians to focus on the performance of government institutions rather than the physical location of individual office holders.

“The country is not a dormitory, where you have the class captain walking up and down to see whether all the students have gone to bed. “The country is a very big nation that is running on a scale that requires everybody to be working efficiently.

Local government chairmen should work efficiently, governors should work efficiently, ministers should work efficiently and businessmen should work efficiently,” he said.