The National Assembly has been urged to immediately invoke constitutional provisions and mandate Vice-President Kashim Shettima to perform the functions of President as Acting President following President Bola Tinubu’s extended absence from Nigeria.
The call was made separately by African Action Congress presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections, Omoyele Sowore, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), amid renewed questions over the constitutional status of Tinubu’s continued stay abroad.
Tinubu departed Nigeria on August 30 for what the presidency initially described as a three-week working vacation. On Monday, however, the Presidency announced that he had extended his stay by a few days and was expected to return at the weekend. It said the president had remained in touch with developments at home and continued to direct government affairs from abroad.
Sowore argued that the expiration of the initial 21-day period triggered the procedure prescribed under Section 145(2), insisting that the National Assembly must act if Tinubu did not transmit the required written declaration to the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Section 145(1) provides that whenever the President proceeds on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. Under Section 145(2), where the President fails or is unable to transmit the declaration within 21 days, the National Assembly may, by a simple majority in each chamber, mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of President as Acting President.
Sowore therefore challenged Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to disclose whether they received the required declaration from Tinubu.
He argued that if no such declaration was transmitted, the National Assembly should commence the constitutional process for Shettima to assume the functions of Acting President.
“This is no longer about Tinubu’s vacation. It is about whether Nigeria will be governed according to its Constitution.
“The 21 days have expired. The National Assembly must act now,” Sowore declared.
Similarly, the ADC, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, questioned the constitutional basis for Tinubu’s continued absence, particularly as Shettima is also currently outside Nigeria.
Shettima left Abuja on September 20 for New York to represent Tinubu at the 81st United Nations General Assembly, where he is scheduled to deliver Nigeria’s national statement. The Presidency said Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, would continue representing Tinubu at some official functions while both the President and Vice-President are abroad.
The ADC said the arrangement raised a fundamental question over who currently exercises presidential powers in Nigeria.
“Representation is not governance. Attendance at official functions is not presidential authority,” the party said, arguing that Akume, as a presidential appointee, does not fall within the constitutional line of succession.
The opposition party also rejected the presidency’s description of Tinubu’s absence as a “working vacation,” arguing that no such category exists in Section 145.
According to the ADC, the issue is not whether Tinubu can communicate with officials or issue directives from abroad, but whether the constitutional procedure governing presidential absence has been complied with.
The party consequently demanded that the Presidency and National Assembly answer one question: “Who presently exercises the constitutional powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and under what provision of the Constitution?”
