By Our Correspondent<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly rejected the position of the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can continue to exercise presidential powers indefinitely from outside Nigeria simply because modern technology allows him to issue instructions through the internet.
\nAkpabio, while speaking in Akwa Ibom State, reportedly said he was not the Acting President because President Tinubu remained in power, insisting that there was no absence in Aso Rock because the President could continue to direct the affairs of government from abroad.
\nHURIWA says the argument completely misses the point of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
\nThe Constitution does not make the constitutional procedure for presidential absence dependent on whether a President has access to the internet, can make telephone calls, attend meetings virtually or issue instructions from another country.
\nSection 145(1) expressly provides that whenever the President proceeds 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. Until he transmits a written declaration to the contrary, the Vice-President is to perform the functions of the President as Acting President.
\nMore importantly, Section 145(2) provides that where the President is unable or fails to transmit the required declaration within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by a resolution supported by a simple majority in each chamber, mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of the office of President as Acting President until the President formally communicates that he is available to resume his functions.
\nHURIWA therefore considers it constitutionally inappropriate for the Senate President to substitute technological connectivity for a constitutional procedure.
\nThe State House itself announced on September 21 that President Tinubu, who left Nigeria on August 30 for a working vacation, had extended his stay abroad by a few days and was expected to return at the weekend. The Presidency also said he had continued directing government affairs while abroad.
\nWhile HURIWA acknowledges that a President does not cease to be President merely because he travels outside Nigeria, the critical constitutional question is different: what happens when the constitutional procedure governing presidential absence is triggered?
\nThe answer cannot be supplied by political assurances, personal interpretations or the availability of the internet. It must be determined by the Constitution itself.
\nHURIWA is particularly concerned by Akpabio’s assertion that \u201cI am the only person who can declare a vacancy.\u201d
\nThat statement is, at the very least, misleading in the context of Section 145. The Constitution does not confer upon the President of the Senate a unilateral power to determine whether the Section 145 procedure has been triggered.
\nRather, Section 145(2) expressly places the relevant constitutional action in the hands of the National Assembly, requiring a resolution supported by a simple majority of each House to mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of President as Acting President where the President fails or is unable to transmit the required declaration within 21 days.
\nHURIWA therefore challenges the Senate President to point to the constitutional provision that gives him the exclusive authority to declare that there is, or is not, a presidential vacancy or constitutional absence.
\nThe Constitution must remain supreme over political convenience.
\nHURIWA further says that the Senate President, as the presiding officer of one of the two chambers of the National Assembly, has a special responsibility to defend and enforce constitutional governance rather than provide political cover for the Executive.
\nBy publicly dismissing constitutional concerns and reducing the question of presidential absence to the ability to send instructions through the internet, the Senate President risks weakening the constitutional checks and balances that the National Assembly is expected to protect.
\nHURIWA therefore calls on Senators to urgently examine the conduct and pronouncements of the Senate President in relation to his constitutional responsibilities.
\nWhere Senators believe that the Senate President has acted contrary to the interests or constitutional responsibilities of the Senate, the Constitution provides a clear mechanism for his removal from office.
\nSection 50(2)(c) of the Constitution provides that the President of the Senate may be removed from office by a resolution of the Senate supported by not less than two-thirds of the members of the Senate.
\nHURIWA consequently urges Senators who believe that Senator Akpabio has failed in his constitutional responsibility to initiate the appropriate procedure under Section 50, rather than allow political loyalty to supersede constitutional duty.
\nThis is not about President Tinubu personally. It is about whether Nigeria is governed by constitutional provisions or by political interpretations of those provisions.
\nThe President may retain his office while abroad. But the Constitution has established a specific procedure for situations in which the President is on vacation or otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office.
\nThe National Assembly must therefore act within the four corners of the Constitution and provide Nigerians with clarity on whether the requirements of Section 145 have been satisfied.
\nHURIWA calls on all members of the National Assembly to place the Constitution above partisan considerations and ensure that no arm of government becomes stronger than the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly rejected the position of the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can continue to exercise presidential powers indefinitely from outside Nigeria simply because modern technology allows him to issue instructions through the internet. Akpabio, while speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17908,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17907\/revisions\/17908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}