The extension of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s three-week vacation abroad has sparked debate over the constitutional provision that requires the president to transmit power to the vice president if away from the country for more than 21 days or unable to discharge the functions of his office.
President Tinubu, who left Nigeria on August 30, was expected to return last weekend, but the Presidency on Monday announced that he had extended his vacation in Europe by one week.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said Tinubu would return home over the weekend.
The statement did not give reasons for the president’s extended stay abroad, but said the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who has been representing him in functions, would continue in that capacity.
President Tinubu had departed Abuja for Europe for “a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave” and was expected to return home “after the working vacation to join the hectic campaign for the January 2027 election.”
The extension has raised questions over the president’s stay abroad beyond 21 days, without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly as provided in the constitution.
Efforts to find out from the National Assembly if the president transmitted the letter yielded no result as the Senate spokesperson, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, did not pick up calls put across to his line.
However, a source at the Senate said it would be difficult to find out if the president transmitted any letter to that effect, because the Assembly is in recess.
Attempts to get the reaction of the Presidency on whether President Tinubu transmitted letter to the National Assembly or why he did not were unsuccessful, as Onanuga’s phone could not be reached.
Text and WhatsApp messages sent to the presidential spokesman had not been responded to.
Constitutional lacuna
Section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states that “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.”
Subsection 2 states that “In the event that the President is unable or fails to transmit the written declaration mentioned in subsection (1) of this section within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by a resolution made by a simple majority of the vote of each House of the National Assembly, mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of the office of the President as Acting President until the President transmits a letter to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he is now available to resume his functions as President.”
Based on this section, the president is expected to send a written declaration to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives if he goes on vacation or is unable to perform his duties for more than 21 days. The declaration makes the vice president the acting president.
Previous scenarios
In February 2016, the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, sent a letter to the National Assembly before proceeding on vacation. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, had said while Buhari was on vacation, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would perform the functions of the president.
Adesina said in compliance with Section 145 (1) of the Nigerian Constitution, Buhari had dispatched a formal notice of his vacation to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Also, in January 2017, former President Buhari transmitted a letter to the National Assembly to make Yemi Osinbajo acting President while he (Buhari) was going on a 10-day leave scheduled to run from January 23 to February 6, 2017.
Similarly, in May 2017, Buhari wrote to the National Assembly to make Osinbajo the coordinating vice president while he was on his way to the United Kingdom for continuation of his treatment.
The letter read, “In compliance with section 145 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, I wish to inform the distinguished Senate that I will be away for a scheduled medical follow-up with my doctors in London. The length of my stay will be determined by the doctor’s advice. While I am away, the vice president will coordinate the activities of the government.”
There was a declaration to make Goodluck Jonathan acting president during the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua under “the Doctrine of Necessity.”
While the then president was away for medical vacation, the country was left without a commander in chief.
To break the political impasse that was brewing and fill the leadership vacuum, the National Assembly stepped in on February 9, 2010, by invoking the “Doctrine of Necessity” to formally empower Jonathan as acting president.
Timeline of Tinubu’s extended stay abroad
Daily Trust reports that the Tuesday announcement is the first formal extension of President Tinubu’s vacation. However, the president had, at various times, extended his stay abroad without making it public.
The president left Abuja on April 22, 2024, for the Netherlands on an official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
President Tinubu proceeded to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to attend a special World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between April 28 and 29, after the engagements in the Netherlands.
The president was expected back in the country after the forum in Saudi Arabia.
However, about five days after the forum, he did not return, fuelling speculations about his whereabouts.
After days of speculation and criticism by the opposition, the Presidency said Tinubu would return to Nigeria on May 8 from his trip.
On August 29, Tinubu embarked on a trip to China, with the Presidency announcing that he would make a brief stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
He arrived in Beijing in the early hours of September 1 and signed agreements with Chinese political and business leaders on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and concluded his engagements in China by meeting with Nigerians living in the country on September 5.
However, after September 5, Nigerians were at a loss as to where the president was until he visited King Charles III on Wednesday, September 11.
In July 2025, President Tinubu participated in the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which ended on Monday, July 7, 2025, but he did not immediately return to Nigeria.
The president arrived in Abuja in the early hours of Sunday, July 13, without any explanation from the Presidency on Tinubu’s whereabouts in those five days.
Some Nigerians, including opposition parties such as the African Democratic Congress (ADC), publicly demanded an explanation for his “five-day disappearance” from public view without official communication to Nigerians on what actually transpired.
Atiku, ADC question ‘non-transmission’ of power
Meanwhile, the ADC presidential candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the Presidency to explain who is in charge of the country, following the extension of Tinubu’s vacation and Vice President Kashim Shettima’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly, in New York.
Atiku, in a statement on Tuesday, said, “Section 145 of the Constitution is not ambiguous about presidential vacations. It provides that whenever the President proceeds on vacation, he shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whereupon the Vice President performs the functions of President as Acting President.
“And where the President fails to transmit that declaration within 21 days, the Constitution provides a further safeguard: the National Assembly shall, by a simple majority of each House, mandate the Vice President to perform the functions of President as Acting President.
“President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August. The Presidency publicly announced a three-week vacation. Yet, to date, Nigerians have not been shown any constitutional letter transmitting presidential authority to Vice President Kashim Shettima. The 21 days have now elapsed. If such a letter exists, the Presidency should publish it immediately.”
Atiku said the situation is more disturbing by the fact that Shettima is in New York representing Nigeria at the United Nations General Assembly, the third consecutive UN General Assembly at which President Tinubu has delegated Nigeria’s representation to the former Borno State governor.
“So again: who is exercising presidential authority in Nigeria today, and under what constitutional instrument? Nigeria cannot be governed by assumptions. It cannot be governed by presidential social-media posts from Europe. It cannot be governed by photographs from private dinners at the Élysée Palace. It cannot be governed on autopilot,” he added.
The ADC also described the continued absence of President Tinubu, while Vice President Shettima is outside Nigeria, as a “dangerous disregard for the Constitution.”
The ADC, in a statement by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, its National Publicity Secretary, said, “President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August and has now been away for more than 21 days. We therefore demand to know whether the required declaration was transmitted by the president. If he did not, we would like to know why the National Assembly has ignored Section 145 of the Constitution.”
The opposition party also rejected the Presidency’s explanation that the president was on a “working vacation” or that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, would represent him at official events.
“Representing the president at events and ceremonies does not confer constitutional powers. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation is a mere appointee of the president. He may attend events or deliver speeches on the president’s behalf, but he cannot exercise the constitutional powers of the president or acting president,” the party said.
CDD asks Nigerians to challenge Tinubu’s action in court
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) urged Nigerians to seek judicial interpretation of President Tinubu’s prolonged absence from the country, saying citizens have the right to challenge actions they believe violate the Constitution.
The Director of CDD-West Africa, Dr Dauda Garuba, said although the president had the right to travel and extend his stay, he was expected to take the provisions of the Constitution into consideration when determining the duration of his absence.
He said, “I personally do not know what is in a political office that we simply cannot follow the Constitution as provided for. If you are leaving the country, I am not saying the president has no right to his own vacation. But the fact also remains that even as you exercise that right, you also need to be looking at the calendar. What is the maximum allowable time for you to be away? And when it is getting beyond that time, you do the needful.”
Garuba said the situation had raised concerns among Nigerians because the president was away from the country while other leaders were attending the UN gathering, adding that the issue should be addressed within the framework of the law rather than through public anger or speculation.
He said, “He has the right to extend his days, depending on what the issue is. But one would ordinarily expect that you just do the needful as required by the Constitution. We are a country of law, as well as those who are supposed to push for the implementation of the laws. What are they doing? What are ordinary people doing about this?
“Somebody has the right, for instance, to go to court and ask questions. They are basic human rights issues. It is something that can be challenged in court. And let’s see what democracy is all about.”
The Country Director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, Friday Odeh, called for a clear chain of executive authority following President Tinubu’s decision to extend his overseas working vacation beyond 21 days.
Odeh said the absence of clear public information on who exercises executive authority in such circumstances could create uncertainty over the handling of urgent national matters.
“When the President and Vice President are both abroad, there is no clear, recurring public signal showing who is making major executive decisions, what authority they have, or what decisions are being delayed,” he said.
‘Representation can’t be substituted for constitutional provision’
A lawyer and rights activist, Hamza N. Dantani, said the administrative arrangements or the representation of the president by other government officials could not substitute for the constitutional office of Acting President where the conditions under Section 145 had arisen.
“The overriding constitutional objective is to ensure that there is, at all times, a clearly identifiable constitutional authority capable of exercising the powers and functions of the President, in accordance with the Constitution rather than merely through administrative or political convention,” he said.
Dantani urged the National Assembly to ensure clarity over who is constitutionally authorised to exercise presidential functions whenever the conditions contemplated by Section 145 arise.
He said any exercise or transfer of presidential powers must have a clear constitutional foundation, adding that presidential functions should not be exercised merely on the basis of administrative convention where the Constitution prescribed a specific procedure.
The lawyer said Nigeria’s experience during the prolonged absence of former President Yar’adua demonstrated the importance of avoiding uncertainty over the exercise of presidential authority.
He said the constitutional amendment that introduced the 21-day safeguard was intended to provide a clearer mechanism for dealing with circumstances in which a president is unable or fails to formally transmit a declaration of inability to perform his functions.
“The central constitutional issue is therefore not merely the duration of President Tinubu’s physical absence from Nigeria. The decisive questions are whether he remains able to discharge the functions of his office, whether the requirements of Section 145 have been satisfied, and whether there is an unmistakable constitutional authority exercising presidential functions,” Dantani added.
A professor of political science, Prof. Gbade Ojo, also faulted Tinubu’s failure to formally hand over the instrument of governance to Shettima.
“Mr President said he was going on his annual leave and the number of days that he has been away is not sufficient, so he sought an extension. His leave ordinarily should be up to forty-something working days. There is nothing wrong with his being outside the country. What is wrong on his part is his inability to formally hand over to his vice president the instrument of governance to be acting president in his absence.
No constitutional infraction committed – SAN
However, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Taiye Oniyide, said, “So far, so good. There’s no constitutional infraction. The president can, for whatever reason, seek extension and all that.”
Oniyide said the fact that both Tinubu and Shetimma were outside the country raised a practical question about who should assume responsibility if the former had transmitted power.
He said, “For instance, now, the president is away and, at the moment as we speak, even the Vice President is away in the US. What then happens? Assuming that the President is away and is to hand over to the vice, and then at the moment, the vice is also away, is it to hand over to the Senate President now? Will we continue that way?”
The SAN acknowledged that the ideal arrangement is for Tinubu to formally hand over to the vice president while going on leave, citing previous administrations where such transfers were made.
“We may look at it from that angle, but not that there is any constitutional infraction that has been committed at the moment. Governance is still ongoing,” he added.
Daily Trust
