Wrong people visiting President Buhari

lekansote@yahoo.com 08050220816

After a coalition of civil society groups led by maverick
Charles “Charly Boy” Oputa demanded President Muhammadu Buhari’s
resignation or return from his medical tourism matters have got to
a head. Nigerians are worried sick about President Buhari’s
sickness. Sounds like tautology? People want to know what is
exactly wrong with his health, and for how long he will be absent
from his duty post.

But for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of the
constitution, those who have visited the President so far are the
wrong people. The Nigerian Constitution does not recognise them as
legitimate bearers of the news of the President’s health.

Among the constitutionally wrong visitors to the President are
some notable traditional rulers; the ruling All Progressives
Congress chiefs like National Leader, Bola Tinubu; former Interim
National Chairman, Bisi Akande; and current Chairman, John
Odigie-Oyegun, who led some APC governors.

Others are Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; and some members of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum, led by Chairman Abdulaziz Yayi. Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo went in tow with Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a
former Osun State governor. Even Justin Welby, Archbishop of the
Canterbury, called.

These teams or individuals bear the same refrain – the President
is in good health; remains his humorous self; and will return to
Nigeria when his doctors say so. Mercifully. But neither these
delegations nor the doctors have the constitutional mandate to
contribute to the process of keeping the President in or out of
office.

Of those who have visited the President, only Acting President
Yemi Osinbajo, and respective Ministers of Transportation and
Information and Culture, Rotimi Amaechi and Lai Mohammed, are
members of the Federal Executive Council that can constitutionally
kickstart actions to determine if the President is incapacitated or
not.

But neither the Acting President nor the ministers claimed to
have been sent by the Cabinet. If a delegation of Ministers Isaac
Adewole, of Health; Adebayo Shittu, of Communications; Lai
Mohammed, of Information and Culture; and Adamu Adamu, of Education
paid a condolence visit to the Osun State Governor, Rauf
Aregbesola, who lost his mother, another delegation could have
visited the President.

The visitation team led by Mohammed included Abike Dabiri-Erewa,
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and
the Diaspora; Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity;
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity; and
Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant to the President on Social
Media, is ok, but they have no constitutional mandate to tell if
the President can continue to serve.

But the trip saves the President’s image makers from further
wringing their hands in resignation when the media enquire of them
about the state of their principal’s health. Now, everyone can see
the film footage and sound bites of an obviously recovering
President Buhari.

Section 144(1) of the Constitution provides that “The President…
shall cease to hold office if (a) by the resolution passed by
two-thirds majority of the Executive Council of the Federation, (or
the Cabinet) it is declared that the President… is incapable of
discharging the function of his office.”

Obviously, only three members are not equal to two-thirds
majority of the Executive Council of the Federation. In addition,
all must have access to the President to be constitutionally
competent to vote on the resolution.

The constitution further provides that after receiving the
cabinet’s resolution that the President cannot perform his duties,
the Senate President shall set up a medical panel – that includes
the President’s personal physician – to examine and advise on the
President’s state of health.

After the report of the medical panel declaring that the
President is incapacitated is published in the official gazette of
the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, the President ceases
to hold office. The Vice President is then sworn in as President,
and he appoints his Vice President.

Someone has suggested that there is an unwritten understanding
that the ministers shall not officially send a delegation to the
President. This, he reasons, will prevent the meddlesome media and
civil society organisations from goading the ministers to send a
resolution to the National Assembly.

If that is so, this avoidance theory route is indeed a clever
trick to avoid doing the needful. The entire train of visitors is
no more than a ploy to divert attention from the constitutionally
required visit of the cabinet to the President.

You may recall that it took the audacious temerity of patriot
Prof Dora Akunyili, a former Minister of Information, before the
matter of the incapacitation of former President Umaru Yar’ Adua
could be broached and adroitly attended to. Nearly everyone kept
skirting the issue.

If the health of the President were of no consequence to the
well-being of the polity, the constitution wouldn’t have dwelt on
it. It is not out of place for a President to fall sick, and he
deserves all the sympathies he can get. He’s only human.

Those who ask to know the state of the President’s health want
to be able to decide if his onerous responsibilities should be
assigned to a healthier person, so that Nigeria can get back to
work again. Though Acting President Osinbajo is doing well, he can
only stay the course; he won’t introduce fundamental, even
ideological, changes.

As a citizen, Acting President Osinbajo believes in state
police, fiscal federalism, more local governments, and devolution
of powers without reverting to ethnic regionalism. But he won’t
lobby the National Assembly to include these in their constitution
review.

Otherwise, the cabal will take the “underground railroad” to
fill the President’s ears with tales of sabotage and bad faith.
Remember, this is not Osinbajo’s presidency! The President’s
absence leaves room for broadsides and skirmishes.

Also, the country suffers from the indecision that trails the
absence of the President: Acting President Osinbajo did not swear
in new ministers, or redeploy the Chairman of Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, until his return
from visiting the President. (Even until now, he has yet to assign
portfolios to the two ministers he swore in weeks ago, something he
should have done briskly were he the one in charge fully.)

Evidently, he had to consult the President over these and other
matters that will soon be unveiled. Nothing wrong in that; but you
can imagine the quantum of policies and actions that are in limbo.
Some ministers should have been let go by now.

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce’s suggestion that the Senate should
review the state of the nation when the President returns was a
hint at the inertia that came with the President’s absence.
Murray-Bruce reportedly said, “There is no point having a
conversation with anybody who is not President.” Surely, he does
not reckon with Acting President Osinbajo.

Now, everything is bordering on the ridiculous, with
NaijaBet.com, an online gaming site, asking Nigerians to bet on
whether the President would return from his medical tourism in the
first or the second week of August 2017. It’s probably too late to
place your bet now.

Some Nigerians are beginning to think that the embarrassing
development vindicates Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose’s frank, if
uncouth, expression of concern for the health of Candidate Buhari
during the 2015 presidential campaigns.

The APC propaganda machine strongly shot down the concern, now
Fareed Zakaria of the CNN is making cruel TV joke of the
President’s absence. However, it’s great that the President appears
to be making appreciable recovery sha.

lekansote@yahoo.com 08050220816

After a coalition of civil society groups led by maverick
Charles “Charly Boy” Oputa demanded President Muhammadu Buhari’s
resignation or return from his medical tourism matters have got to
a head. Nigerians are worried sick about President Buhari’s
sickness. Sounds like tautology? People want to know what is
exactly wrong with his health, and for how long he will be absent
from his duty post.

But for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of the
constitution, those who have visited the President so far are the
wrong people. The Nigerian Constitution does not recognise them as
legitimate bearers of the news of the President’s health.

Among the constitutionally wrong visitors to the President are
some notable traditional rulers; the ruling All Progressives
Congress chiefs like National Leader, Bola Tinubu; former Interim
National Chairman, Bisi Akande; and current Chairman, John
Odigie-Oyegun, who led some APC governors.

Others are Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; and some members of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum, led by Chairman Abdulaziz Yayi. Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo went in tow with Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a
former Osun State governor. Even Justin Welby, Archbishop of the
Canterbury, called.

These teams or individuals bear the same refrain – the President
is in good health; remains his humorous self; and will return to
Nigeria when his doctors say so. Mercifully. But neither these
delegations nor the doctors have the constitutional mandate to
contribute to the process of keeping the President in or out of
office.

Of those who have visited the President, only Acting President
Yemi Osinbajo, and respective Ministers of Transportation and
Information and Culture, Rotimi Amaechi and Lai Mohammed, are
members of the Federal Executive Council that can constitutionally
kickstart actions to determine if the President is incapacitated or
not.

But neither the Acting President nor the ministers claimed to
have been sent by the Cabinet. If a delegation of Ministers Isaac
Adewole, of Health; Adebayo Shittu, of Communications; Lai
Mohammed, of Information and Culture; and Adamu Adamu, of Education
paid a condolence visit to the Osun State Governor, Rauf
Aregbesola, who lost his mother, another delegation could have
visited the President.

The visitation team led by Mohammed included Abike Dabiri-Erewa,
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and
the Diaspora; Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity;
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity; and
Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant to the President on Social
Media, is ok, but they have no constitutional mandate to tell if
the President can continue to serve.

But the trip saves the President’s image makers from further
wringing their hands in resignation when the media enquire of them
about the state of their principal’s health. Now, everyone can see
the film footage and sound bites of an obviously recovering
President Buhari.

Section 144(1) of the Constitution provides that “The President…
shall cease to hold office if (a) by the resolution passed by
two-thirds majority of the Executive Council of the Federation, (or
the Cabinet) it is declared that the President… is incapable of
discharging the function of his office.”

Obviously, only three members are not equal to two-thirds
majority of the Executive Council of the Federation. In addition,
all must have access to the President to be constitutionally
competent to vote on the resolution.

The constitution further provides that after receiving the
cabinet’s resolution that the President cannot perform his duties,
the Senate President shall set up a medical panel – that includes
the President’s personal physician – to examine and advise on the
President’s state of health.

After the report of the medical panel declaring that the
President is incapacitated is published in the official gazette of
the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, the President ceases
to hold office. The Vice President is then sworn in as President,
and he appoints his Vice President.

Someone has suggested that there is an unwritten understanding
that the ministers shall not officially send a delegation to the
President. This, he reasons, will prevent the meddlesome media and
civil society organisations from goading the ministers to send a
resolution to the National Assembly.

If that is so, this avoidance theory route is indeed a clever
trick to avoid doing the needful. The entire train of visitors is
no more than a ploy to divert attention from the constitutionally
required visit of the cabinet to the President.

You may recall that it took the audacious temerity of patriot
Prof Dora Akunyili, a former Minister of Information, before the
matter of the incapacitation of former President Umaru Yar’ Adua
could be broached and adroitly attended to. Nearly everyone kept
skirting the issue.

If the health of the President were of no consequence to the
well-being of the polity, the constitution wouldn’t have dwelt on
it. It is not out of place for a President to fall sick, and he
deserves all the sympathies he can get. He’s only human.

Those who ask to know the state of the President’s health want
to be able to decide if his onerous responsibilities should be
assigned to a healthier person, so that Nigeria can get back to
work again. Though Acting President Osinbajo is doing well, he can
only stay the course; he won’t introduce fundamental, even
ideological, changes.

As a citizen, Acting President Osinbajo believes in state
police, fiscal federalism, more local governments, and devolution
of powers without reverting to ethnic regionalism. But he won’t
lobby the National Assembly to include these in their constitution
review.

Otherwise, the cabal will take the “underground railroad” to
fill the President’s ears with tales of sabotage and bad faith.
Remember, this is not Osinbajo’s presidency! The President’s
absence leaves room for broadsides and skirmishes.

Also, the country suffers from the indecision that trails the
absence of the President: Acting President Osinbajo did not swear
in new ministers, or redeploy the Chairman of Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, until his return
from visiting the President. (Even until now, he has yet to assign
portfolios to the two ministers he swore in weeks ago, something he
should have done briskly were he the one in charge fully.)

Evidently, he had to consult the President over these and other
matters that will soon be unveiled. Nothing wrong in that; but you
can imagine the quantum of policies and actions that are in limbo.
Some ministers should have been let go by now.

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce’s suggestion that the Senate should
review the state of the nation when the President returns was a
hint at the inertia that came with the President’s absence.
Murray-Bruce reportedly said, “There is no point having a
conversation with anybody who is not President.” Surely, he does
not reckon with Acting President Osinbajo.

Now, everything is bordering on the ridiculous, with
NaijaBet.com, an online gaming site, asking Nigerians to bet on
whether the President would return from his medical tourism in the
first or the second week of August 2017. It’s probably too late to
place your bet now.

Some Nigerians are beginning to think that the embarrassing
development vindicates Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose’s frank, if
uncouth, expression of concern for the health of Candidate Buhari
during the 2015 presidential campaigns.

The APC propaganda machine strongly shot down the concern, now
Fareed Zakaria of the CNN is making cruel TV joke of the
President’s absence. However, it’s great that the President appears
to be making appreciable recovery sha.