Tinubu Can't Lead Nigeria from Abroad, Odinkalu Says

A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s long absence from Nigeria. He said the country cannot be run from abroad forever.

Mr Odinkalu, who is a lawyer, stated that the absence of both Mr Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima has created a leadership issue that past administrations avoided.

He spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday. This comes as more people criticize Mr Tinubu’s extended stay in Europe and Mr Shettima’s presence in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly.

“Running a country requires common sense,” Mr Odinkalu said. He pointed out that in previous administrations, either the president or vice president stayed in Nigeria while the other was away.

“It never happened before. As a rule, as a convention, pretty much a binding convention of government, no president allowed himself to be out of the country with the vice president at the same time. It never happened. It was not permitted,” he said.

Mr Odinkalu mentioned the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari as examples. “Under Buhari, whenever Buhari was going out of the country, Osinbajo was required to be back in the country. Under Obasanjo, Obasanjo would never contemplate it. Yar’Adua did not contemplate it. Jonathan did not allow it,” he said.

The former NHRC chairman questioned if the current leaders understand their responsibilities. “The question, therefore, you’ve got to pose is do the current people running the country even think or understand what the obligations of running the country are before we get into the constitutional text,” he said.

Mr Odinkalu called Mr Tinubu’s long absence “japa,” a Nigerian slang for leaving the country for better opportunities. He compared this to how President Paul Biya spends a lot of time outside Cameroon.

“Tinubu cannot interminably run Nigeria like Paul Biya runs Cameroon,” he said. He described Nigeria as an “ungoverned territory” while the president and vice president are both away, claiming that the leaders have left their responsibilities.

Mr Odinkalu also challenged the idea that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, could take on presidential duties while both Mr Tinubu and Mr Shettima are abroad. He referred to Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, which outlines what happens when the president is on vacation or unable to perform his duties.

This section states that the president must send a written notice to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. Until a contrary notice is sent, the vice president takes on the role of acting president. If the president does not send this notice within 21 days, the National Assembly can mandate the vice president to act as president.

Mr Odinkalu said this constitutional rule should be viewed alongside the basic responsibility to ensure the country has effective leadership. He argued that only focusing on a technical reading of the Constitution could ignore the wider duty of those in public office.

Mr Tinubu left Abuja on August 30 for a three-week working vacation in Europe. He started in London and then went to Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and businessman Vincent Bollore.

The Presidency later announced that the president had extended his stay by a few days and would return to Nigeria at the weekend. It said Mr Tinubu had kept in touch with officials back home and continued to direct government affairs from abroad.

Mr Shettima left Abuja on September 20 for New York to represent Mr Tinubu at the 81st UN General Assembly and to deliver Nigeria’s national statement.

The Presidency said that while Mr Shettima is away, Mr Akume will continue to represent the president at official events. It also stated that the president had given the vice president the task of representing him at some official functions.

The federal government has defended Mr Tinubu’s absence from the UN General Assembly. They said Mr Shettima has the president’s full mandate to represent Nigeria and that the country would be properly represented at the gathering. This is the third time Mr Tinubu has sent Mr Shettima to represent him at the UN General Assembly.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has also criticized Mr Tinubu’s absence from the UN meeting, asking who is in charge of the country.