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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the simultaneous absence of President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima from Nigeria, describing the situation as a “very dangerous precedent”.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, made the position known on Monday while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, amid questions over who is constitutionally exercising presidential authority in the country.
Tinubu has been out of Nigeria since August 30 on what the Presidency described as a working vacation, while Shettima left Abuja on September 20 for New York to represent the President at the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
The Presidency has maintained that Tinubu remains in contact with officials in Nigeria and continues to direct government affairs.
It also said that Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, would continue to represent the President at some official engagements while Shettima attends the UN General Assembly.
However, Abdullahi questioned whether Akume had any constitutional authority to act on behalf of the President in the absence of both Tinubu and Shettima.
“Is SGF Akume now the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Is that what they are telling us? Is it the chain of succession that is spelt out by the Nigerian Constitution?” he asked.
“Is the SGF, an appointee of the president, the one who should be in charge of the country when the president and vice president are not around?”
The ADC spokesman further accused the Federal Government of disregarding the concerns of Nigerians and the Constitution, warning that the arrangement could establish a precedent with implications beyond the present administration.
“They insult the sensibility of Nigerians, they insult the Constitution,” Abdullahi said.
“What they are doing is dangerous, and they should realise that this will end one day. They are setting a very dangerous precedent; nobody is in charge of Nigeria now.”
He also rejected the description of Tinubu’s absence as a “working vacation”, arguing that the Constitution did not provide for a Nigerian president to relocate to another country while governance continued through informal arrangements.
Abdullahi called on the National Assembly to reconvene from its recess and address the constitutional questions surrounding the President’s absence.
He alleged, however, that lawmakers would not take such action because of their closeness to the Tinubu administration.
The controversy comes as the Presidency insists that Shettima is carrying Tinubu’s full mandate at the UN General Assembly and that the President’s absence has not affected the running of government.
