Buhari can perform duties from anywhere -Presidency

President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Assembly Liaison Officer, Mr Umar El-Yakub, has said that it's the duty of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to inform Nigerians whether Buhari wrote the legislature transmitting power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo before he embarked on his latest Saudi Arabia trip and London "private visit."

El-Yakub noted that if a letter was sent, it was the National Assembly presiding officers who were empowered by law to say so and not a matter for the Presidency or any of Buhari’s aides to divulge.

El-Yakub, who spoke exclusively with The PUNCH amid the controversy on whether Buhari should have transmitted power to Osinbajo to fully take charge as acting President, declined to answer a direct question on whether the President wrote any letter.

The President had jetted out of the country on October 28 in the first leg of the trip to Saudi Arabia, while the second leg as a private visit to London, started on November 2.

He will be away from Nigeria till November 17.

"Normally, my office will not tell you. If there was any communication by Mr President to the presiding officers, they will be the ones to tell the world by reading the communication.

"It is read normally on the floor if there is any communication. It is not my office that will tell you there is communication."

Only on Monday, the President had assented to the Deep Offshore (amendment) Act in London, further raising questions on whether Osinbajo could not have signed the new law back home in Nigeria as acting President.

Asked whether Buhari wrote the National Assembly for Osinbajo to be acting President, El-Yakub replied, "I am not going to speak on anything that is not my schedule or take issues with people out there on things that are not official.

"So, I repeat, any communication by Mr President to the National Assembly, it is the presiding officers who will broadcast the content to Nigerians;, not me or my colleague in the Senate."

However, El-Yakub defended Buhari’s decision to sign the Deep Seaport (amendment) Act in London, arguing that he (Buhari) could work from anywhere.

He stated, "The office of the President does not have to be located in Abuja before he can perform that function.

"He can choose to perform the function of the office from Yenagoa, or Ado-Ekiti or even in his aircraft.

"American Presidents have been shown performing their duties inside Air Force One, in the skies.

"In the same vein, President Buhari can sign bills anywhere in the world. He is doing his work as the President."

On the public debate on whether Buhari should have transmitted power, El-Yakub said the matter could be taken for legal interpretation and "not for me or my colleague to say."

The 1999 Constitution provides in Section 145 (1), ‘’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.’’

It adds in (2), ‘’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.’’