By Carl Umegboro
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari officially
embarked at first instance on a ten-day official leave and on expiration,
sought for extension on medical grounds. According to information from the
presidency, Buhari sought for extension to enable him complete series of tests
and medications as prescribed by his United Kingdom based physicians. Since
then, all manner of ugly insinuations and assumptions have trailed the
development with a good number calling for Buhari to address the nation to
rebut sundry allegations.
Even in the United Kingdom, a group of Nigerians
besieged the Nigerian’s High Commission for reasons known to them seeking to
know the health status of the President. Even after the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina tried to douse tension by
assuring of President’s good health standing, it sounded as if water was poured
on a stone. The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) who stands to
personally benefit more if the President is permanently incapacitated as
alleged, as provided in Section 146 of 1999 Constitution, Federal Republic of
Nigeria testified with self-confidence that Buhari is hale and hearty; his
explanations were like reciting orchestrated scripts of the Hollywood.
Some claimed that as the President of
the country; by implication, a public officer that his whereabouts and health
condition must always be of public knowledge. Incidentally, the President
formally took some days from statutory annual vacation as stipulated by the
laws of the country. To start with, official leave implies a temporary
disengagement from official duties and position. It therefore connotes that
President Buhari is at the moment officially not the head of government by
virtue of his letter to the National Assembly for temporary disengagement from
duty as the President. The sovereignty
of the nation is therefore on Osinbajo until further notice. As a matter of fact, by virtue of Section 145
CFRN, Buhari lacks the legitimacy to sign any valid documents as the President
of the country until he retransmits to the National Assembly his willingness
and readiness to take back power. This is all about sovereignty and clearly
indicative that Buhari is not accountable to anyone over his whereabouts or
health condition until after his vacation. With Osinbajo temporarily at the
helm of affairs, it is symptomatic there is no vacuum in the presidency. Without a doubt, from Buhari’s request for
extension of leave, non specification of the duration logically tells it will aggregately
end on or prior to the end his statutory period of annual vacation.
Interestingly, by his transmission to
the National Assembly, automatically, the Vice President, Osinbajo stepped into
the shoes of the president which required no ceremony, thus no vacancy or
lacuna of any sort. As it stands, all decisions taken by Osinbajo as the acting
President are as valid as if Buhari took them while on seat. The President albeit
is a person but more of an office. Democracy is not commonsensical instead a
constitutional institution and therefore, as long as the provisions of the
constitution are adhered to, no blunder is committed anywhere. The polity would
have been sensibly heated up if Buhari adopted ex-President Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo’s style and left the shores of the country without following the
conventional procedures of official temporary handover. Obasanjo due to the
cat-and-mouse relationship with his Vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar then embarked on
vacation but left office for his political appointees instead of the Vice
President ostensibly targeted for settling political scores and supremacy
battle.
As a matter of fact, Buhari’s
whereabouts as the President would only become serious issues after exhausting
his annual vacation. At that point, the National Assembly which exercises
oversight functions would have justifications to demand his whereabouts or state
of health. At the moment, nobody has powers to disturb his rest as Section 37
CFRN which provides for right to Privacy for all citizens which is a
fundamental human right, is available and applicable to Muhammadu Buhari too. Even
if he faces health challenges, he is entitled to privacy until his annual
vacation which was approved by the National Assembly is over. It is
unjustifiable, impious, iniquitous, and inhuman for citizens to add more stress
on him. If after his official leave, he remains unavailable, certainly,
questions must be asked but for now, he deserves to enjoy his vacation without
stress. As a conventional norm, even in the private sector for instance, a
staff after exhausting official leave but didn’t report to duty will certainly
become vulnerable to query and sanctions. Thus, to tirelessly demand for
someone on leave to show his face or give his voice is the height of naivety.
An official on leave irrespective of the office occupied is not accountable to
anyone on official matters except Buhari’s official leave is distinct from
other citizens’ annual leave. Several even erroneously compared Buhari’s case
with the deceased former President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua who then already
exhausted his statutory annual leave but remained offshore with no clear
directions of his whereabouts. Admitted, Buhari could be ill; fortunately, the
Constitution never frowned on ill health except terminal illness which shall be
tantamount to certified permanent incapacitation.
Overall, the most outstanding
attributes of democracy are electoral franchise and time limit; no one rules
forever. By implication, if Buhari’s government and party fail to meet the
expectations of the citizenry, fight back at the next poll with your votes. It successfully
happened on Goodluck Jonathan and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. I believe
that’s the greatest record Jonathan set in Nigeria that an incumbent that
failed to meet the targets of the people must pack his load. It is no longer
unprecedented to remove an incumbent from power. It has happened in Ghana too.
Hence, appraisals if poor shouldn’t degenerate to odium or show of aggression.
Umegboro is a public affairs analyst
and publisher (07057101974 sms only)
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