The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has demanded to know who is currently wielding presidential powers in Nigeria, as President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima remain out of the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi noted that Tinubu’s absence has now stretched beyond the 21-day threshold set out in Section 145 of the Constitution. The party is asking whether the President formally transmitted a written declaration to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the law requires when he’s away for that long.
The ADC also pushed back on the Presidency’s framing of the trip as a “working vacation,” insisting that no such category exists under the Constitution. It argued that Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume, despite standing in at official events, has no constitutional authority to exercise presidential powers — representation, the party said, is not the same as governance.
Beyond the legal question, the ADC took aim at the optics of Tinubu’s continued stay in Paris, pointing out that even his host, French President Emmanuel Macron, had already left for New York to attend the UN General Assembly. The party called the situation a “national embarrassment,” especially given the pressures many Nigerians are facing — insecurity, unemployment, and the rising cost of living.
The ADC’s central ask remains unanswered: who, exactly, is exercising the constitutional powers of the presidency right now, and under what legal authority?
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