What Nigerian Law Says About Tinubu’s European Vacation and Transfer of Power to Shettima

President Bola Tinubu’s three-week vacation in Europe has revived a constitutional question in Nigeria: can a president leave the country and continue exercising presidential powers, or must those powers pass to the vice president?

Tinubu left Abuja on Sunday, with London his first destination. Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga described the trip as the president’s annual leave and a “working vacation.” The president is expected to return after three weeks.

At roughly the same time, Vice-President Kashim Shettima travelled to Luanda, Angola, to represent Tinubu at an African Union summit. Shettima returned to Nigeria on Monday, one day after the president began his vacation.

“

working vacation

Section 145 of Nigeria’s Constitution requires the president to send a written declaration to the Senate president and the speaker of the House of Representatives whenever he goes on vacation or otherwise cannot perform the functions of his office. Until the president sends a declaration reversing that position, the vice president is required to perform those functions as acting president.

Premium Times contacted presidential and National Assembly officials to establish whether Tinubu had transmitted the declaration. Those contacted included Onanuga, officials responsible for National Assembly matters, Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu, and representatives of Senate President Godswill Akpabio and House Speaker Abbas Tajudeen. Adaramodu and Wasiu Olarenwaju-Smart did not respond to calls and messages. Other officials who replied could not confirm whether the constitutional declaration had been sent. Onanuga confirmed that Tinubu was on a short working vacation but declined to say whether the required written declaration had been transmitted.

“

Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation or is 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.