Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is now in charge of the country.
He said this while departing Abuja for a medical checkup in London on Sunday.
As of the time of filing this report, it could not be confirmed if Buhari transmitted a letter to the National Assembly handing over power to Osinbajo pending his return to the country.
When asked if his absence won’t affect state functions, he said, “Well, I cannot claim to be doing the work alone. The government is fully represented. The Vice President is there.
“Constitutionally, when I’m away, he’s in charge. Then, we have the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and then the Chief of Staff, so, there’s no problem.”
Buhari departed Abuja for his medical check-up in the United Kingdom on Sunday.
According to the presidency, Buhari is expected to be in London for two weeks.
“President Buhari departs for medical check up in UK March 6th, 2022,” a presidential aide, Femi Adesina, said while announcing the president’s departure.
He also shared pictures of the President’s departure on his Facebook page.
The Presidency had on Friday in Abuja said the President’s return to Abuja from Nairobi does not abort his earlier scheduled trip to the United Kingdom for a routine medical checkup.
This is as it said the President’s earlier scheduled trip to London for routine medical checkup still stands.
The aircraft conveying the President, which arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 1 pm, was initially bound to proceed to London from Nairobi.
Buhari attended the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environmental Programme in Nairobi, which was held from March 3 – 4, 2022, where he called for broader collaboration amongst UN member states to combat climate change.
In an earlier statement on Monday, Adesina, “He (Buhari) will thereafter proceed to London for routine medical checks that will last for a maximum of two weeks.”
The announcement attracted heavy criticism from Nigerians who noted that the President was leaving the country at the time of dire petrol scarcity and industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, amongst others.
The main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, in a statement signed on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, advised Nigerians to fend for each other as “Buhari has abandoned” them.
The PDP argued that Buhari’s decision to jet out to the United Kingdom (where leaders are committed) for yet another ‘routine medical checkup’ underscores the “insensitivity of the APC which by nature and outlook has never been ready for governance since inception.”
It said while other world leaders are solving problems in their countries, the President, who promised to fix the country’s refineries, abandoned Nigerians to the excruciating fuel crisis caused by APC leaders at the helm of affairs in the petroleum sector.
Some perceived the President’s abrupt return to be a cancellation of his two-week medical checkup. But Presidency revealed otherwise.
Speaking late Friday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, affirmed that Buhari’s London trip still stands.
He had said, “Nothing changed about his planned trip to London. The earlier plan remains. He will leave for London on Sunday.”
Shehu added that the President returned to Abuja on Friday because he rounded up his engagements in Nairobi earlier,
saying that he returned to pick a few things.
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