The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said on Tuesday that President Bola Tinubu is still running the country even though he is on vacation outside Nigeria.
He rejected suggestions that the Vice President should take over the president’s powers while Tinubu is away.
Tinubu left Nigeria on August 30th to go to London and then Paris.
He was supposed to return after three weeks, but he extended his stay by a few more days.
The Presidency said he would come back over the weekend.
They said the President has been talking to officials back home and is still giving orders to run the government while he is away.
Akpabio said there is no empty presidency and that he is not acting as President.
He said Tinubu is still the President and is just on working vacation, meaning he is still working even though he is not in Nigeria.
Akpabio said the President has been doing things while abroad, like meeting with the French President Macron to discuss business that would help Nigeria.
Akpabio explained that Vice President Kashim Shettima went to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to represent the President because Tinubu could not go.
This does not mean the President has given up his powers, Akpabio said.
He said Tinubu is still in control.
The Senate President said only the National Assembly, which he leads, can say whether the presidency is empty or not.
He said right now the presidency is not empty and Tinubu is still running Nigeria.
Akpabio said people should not complain because modern technology allows the President to give orders from anywhere in the world using the internet.
He said it is like the world is now one village and distance does not matter anymore.
However, another politician named Omoyele Sowore, who ran for president, had called on the National Assembly to make the Vice President act as President.
Sowore said Tinubu’s three-week vacation time had finished and the President had not officially told the National Assembly that he was going on vacation as the Constitution requires.
Sowore asked if Akpabio and the House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas had received an official written statement from the President about his vacation.
If they did not receive one, Sowore said, then the time limit had passed and the Vice President should take over as Acting President.
Sowore also said the Constitution does not allow a President to go on what is called a working vacation.
He said a vacation is a vacation.
The Presidency has said that Tinubu is still in charge and that the Vice President is just representing him at official events.
