The President’s visit to London sparked fresh controversies Sunday, as the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, insisted that his principal can perform his duty from anywhere in the world.
Shehu stated this in a response to a claim made by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that Buhari did not write to the National Assembly, to inform them of his trip to the United Kingdom.
Appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the PDP’s Deputy National Chairman, Yemi Akinwunmi, said the President ought to have notified the lawmakers, indicating his mission abroad and transferring power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“I know by the standard convention all over the world, it is conventional that when the President is travelling out of a domain, whether privately or publicly after about six or seven days, he has to have a course to the National Assembly to disclose his mission and then transfer power to the Vice President.
“These guys are talking as if Nigeria is a private enterprise, it is not. The President derives his power from the citizens. And he is responsible not to the presidency but to Nigerians.
“The money he is going to spend in the course of the journey is derived from the federation account,” Akinwunmi said.
In response, Shehu said: “The President didn’t make a mistake by taking off without writing a letter to the National Assembly. The Constitution says 21 days is the back off point. That is where infringement is caused.
“But as it is now, there is no Constitutional or legal infraction that has happened. So the President is doing his work from wherever he is. Yes, it is right that the President can operate anywhere he is. If you are a Permanent Secretary and the President calls you from Abidjan and says you go and repair that road, are you going to tell him that Mr. President you are not a Nigerian in Abidjan, you are not going to do the work?
“Do you think you will have your job waiting for you the next day? These are matters of common sense,” he stated.
Buhari is expected to spend 10 days in the UK and return on May 5.
