INTRODUCTION
It is no longer news that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has
embarked on a 10 day “private visit” to the United
Kingdom (UK), without informing the National Assembly and
delegating presidential powers to the Vice President, since leaving
on Thursday, 25th April, 2019. PMB is
supposedly expected to be back on Sunday, 5th
May, 2019. This is not the first time the President has
travelled out of the country both for official duties and for
vacation since June 3, 2015. However, this is the
first time PMB will be leaving the country not on an official duty,
but for a ‘private visit’, as claimed by his handlers. Today, I
shall be looking at the legal implication of his recent ‘private
visit’ to UK, vis-à-vis the legal position of the 1999 Constitution
(as amended).
The starting point here is that the position of the President is
enshrined in our 1999 Constitution. And as such, the President is
not expected to do or act contrary to the provisions of the 1999
Constitution. This is well encapsulated in section 1 (1)
& (3) of the 1999 Constitution.
By virtue of Section 5
(1),
“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the
executive powers of the Federation:
- shall be vested in the President and may subject as
aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National
Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the
Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or
officers in the public service of the Federation; and
- shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this
Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all
matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the
time being, power to make laws”.
Barely few days into his ‘private trip’ to UK, PMB came under
serious backlash, when it was discovered that there was no letter
from him to the Senate President and the Speaker, House of
Representatives transmitting power to his Vice- President, Yemi
Osibanjo, for his inability to perform his official functions as
the President for the duration of his absence. This is the position
of Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.
Section 145 states:
- “Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation or
otherwise, unable to discharge the functions of his office, he
shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate
and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, and
until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary,
the Vice President shall perform the functions of the President as
acting President.’
- In the event that the President is unable or fails to
transmit the written declaration mentioned in subsection (1) of
this section within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by a
resolution made by a simple majority of the vote of each House of
the National Assembly, mandate the Vice-President to perform the
functions of the office of the President as Acting President until
the President transmits a letter to the President of the Senate and
Speaker of the House of Representatives that he is now available to
resume his functions as President”.
The presidency were swift to respond that PMB has not breached
any section of the Nigerian Constitution for failing to transmit
power to his deputy, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, before embarking
on a 10-day private visit to London, United Kingdom (UK).
Hellooooooo, Avid readers and history pupils, do not forget that
the same PMB had earlier visited UK in one of his visits, in
June 6, 2016, where PMB had handed over to
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo after notifying the Senate of his
10-day visit to UK, where PMB claimed he would be seeing an Ear,
Nose and Throat specialist over a persistent ear infection. What
has changed? Nothing! Fast forward.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba
Shehu, while making reference to Section 145 (1) and (2) of
the Constitution, stated that “the President’s action did
not contravene the law”. Shehu also averred that “Buhari had the
capacity to preside over the affairs of the country from
‘anywhere’”.
Shehu went further to say that “the President can exercise
authority from wherever he is as he is currently doing. This is a
relatively short absence. If you check Section 145 (1) and (2) of
the Constitution, you will see that the law is only infringed upon
when such absence extends to 21 days”. Furthermore, Shehu said:
“The President can operate from wherever he is; if you are a
Permanent Secretary and the President calls you from Abidjan and
says you go and repair that road, are you going to tell him, ‘Mr.
President, you are not in Nigeria, you are in Abidjan’ and because
of that you are not going to do the work? Do you think you will
have your job waiting for you? There is absolutely no stress
surrounding this because in the last three days of Mr. President
being in the UK, we are in touch with him. We are aware he met with
the Foreign Minister, two days ago, and advised him on engagement
with the West African coast.”
“PMB was also in touch, watching over incidents happening in
Gombe State and other places in the country. The president is in
charge.” Can someone wake me up please??? I beg to disagree with
Garba’s opinion on the above provisions of Mallam Garba. It is not
correct, legally, constitutionally or even morally, that the
president of about 200 million populated country can simply
disappear on a so called “private visit” without the citizens being
apprised. It is also wrong to say the president can rule
Nigeria from any part of the world. This argument does not seem to
realise that the president loses his anonymity and utmost privacy
the very day he took the oath of office as Nigerian president. His
actions, both in and out of his official government quarters are
subject to total public scrutiny. It becomes more serious when the
visit is outside Nigeria, to another sovereign country like UK. It
has implications concerning security, self-pride, national
consciousness and responsibility of a government to its
citizens.
Nigerians did not elect a president-at-large, in
cognito and plenipotentiary. He can only rule us from Nigeria.
When he is incapable of doing this, he must resort to section 145
by transferring power to his Vice. He did this in 2017 and I
praised him to high heavens for avoiding the need for invocation of
the doctrine of necessity, which had to be invoked in the Yar’Adua
health saga.
I think at this point it is imperative to know the meaning of
‘private’ and ‘vacation’. According to Wikipedia,
‘private’ means, ‘something is inherently
special or sensitive to them’. Again, Wikipedia defined
‘vacation’ to mean, ‘a leave of absence
from a regular occupation, or a specific trip or journey, usually
for the purpose of recreation or tourism’. Having regard
to the facts and circumstances of the controversial ‘private
visit’, PMB is deemed in the eyes of the law to be on vacation or
leave of absence for 10 days. 10 days cannot be regarded as a
“relatively short absence”, as argued by Shehu,
but a vacation simpliciter!
NOW THIS
Shehu’s above view that Buhari has not breached the above
provision of Section 145 (1) (2) above, particularly, PMB has not
spent up to the required number of 21 days, without transmitting
power is misleading and not the true intent and purport of the said
provisions. The purport and intendment of the sub-section 2, is to
cure the defect that occurred during Yar’Adua tenure, where
Yar’Adua left the country without transmitting power to his then
Vice-President, GEJ. It took the intervention of the National
Assembly to restore the country back to her position. The
sub-section 2 above is not a yardstick to act or behave anyhow.
AND THIS
Can someone please tell the presidency, especially Shehu, that
there is a huge difference between embarking on an official
assignment that lasts for days, or even weeks and merely leaving
the country for reasons best known to him only, but termed
“private”. The former cannot be treated as vacation and no letter
is required to the National Assembly. But, in the latter, a letter
must be written to the National Assembly and constitutes
vacation.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not alien
power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a
President and Senators and Congressmen and government officials,
but the voters of this country”. (Franklin D.
Roosevelt).
LAST LINE
Hope Nigerians are reading, digesting and awaiting the next
explosive discourse of Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian
Project by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.D.