Buhari Traveling Without Officially Handing Over To His Vice Is Unconstitutional TheNigerialawyer

*Signing bill outside Nigeria sends a wrong signal

The Immediate Past 2nd Vice President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Monday Onyekachi Ubani has said that it is
unconstitutional for the president of the country to travel,
leaving office without officially handing over to his vice.

He also reacted that President Muhammadu Buhari signing the Off
-Shores Bill outside the shores of Nigeria does not portray the
country is a good light.

MOU in his statement Wednesday said: “For the second time in his
8th year reign as the President of Nigeria, President Muhammed
Buhari has jetted out of the country to UK on a visit he termed
“private”. The last time he did this was sometime in April this
year during which he spent about seventeen days before returning
back to the country. Just like the earlier visit, the President
again failed to transmit power to the Vice President of Nigeria,
Professor Yemi Osibajo in accordance with Section 145 of the 1999
Constitution as amended.

“That section mandates the president to transmit power through
the National Assembly to his Vice to take charge of the country in
his absence. The drafters of the constitution have a genuine reason
to insert such a Section in an important document like the
constitution one of which is to ensure that vacuum does not exist
and also to give a sense of belonging to whoever the country have
elected as a vice to the president of the country.

“The most important reason maybe also the fact that presidential
duties are enormous and any hardworking president deserves to take
a rest from the onerous burden of the presidency and allow his vice
to man the office while he rests and resumes refreshed for the task
ahead. There may be more reasons than this but I think these are
the major reasons for that provision,” he said.

He also made emphasis that when President Yar’dua was in power
and took ill and failed to hand over the reigns of power to the
then Vice President, former President Goodluck Jonathan, that
failure created so much crisis, that the National Assembly had to
device the doctrine of necessity to obviate the conflagration that
was about to blow up the country then.
“ It was not a pleasant time for Nigerians as words like “the
president can rule from anywhere in the world” rented the air to
the annoyance of the majority of Nigerians. Sadly, we are being
treated shockingly to the same menu under the new dispensation.

“In 2010, the National Assembly in conjunction with the 36 State
House of Assemblies cured the defect by inserting Subsection (2) to
Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution to avoid a repeat of that ugly
incident.

“ The sum total of that subsection is that if the President
fails, refuses and or neglects to transmit power to his Vice
President, the National Assembly is mandated after the period of 21
days to pass a resolution empowering the Vice President to start to
act automatically “as the Acting President of Nigeria”.

“That section did not and never provided that it is only when
the president will spend more than 21 days outside the shores of
the country, that he will be required to hand over power to his
Vice President. The 21 days provision is meant to give the maximum
period the president will be allowed to be in breach of Section 145
of the Constitution as the National Assembly will come in to do
what the President ought to have done in the first place by
mandating the Vice President to act in the place of the “travelled
president”.

He further said that “the president has breached the
constitution of 1999 constitution no doubt by his inability to
transmit power to the Vice President of the country for the 19 or
less that he wants to spend for his “private visit” in the UK. His
“private visit” has no place in Section 145 of the 1999
Constitution in the first place. He is only allowed outside the
shores of Nigeria for official visits, medicals and or
vacations.

“More troubling is the signing of Off-Shores Bill in the UK,
outside the shores of Nigeria. The act of signing the Bill outside
the country, politically sends a signal to our friends that our
sovereignty as a nation is in doubt. Some acts attract dignity,
some do not.

“This one certainly does not. If I were the president who love
and respect my country, I will instruct that the bill should wait
until I come back and sign it in OUR SHORES. The signing of that
Bill in far UK sent wrong signals on so many fronts and IT IS NOT
HEALTHY FOR THIS GOVERNMENT,” he said.