Labour Party Faults Tinubu’s Prolonged Absence, Questions ‘Working Vacation’

The Labour Party (LP) has questioned the legality of President Bola Tinubu’s extended working vacation in Europe, describing the concept of a “working vacation” as contradictory and contrary to the intent of the framers of the Constitution.

Speaking to LEADERSHIP, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Eluma Asogwa, said while it may be difficult to pinpoint a direct constitutional breach because the Presidency announced a working vacation at the time of the President’s departure, the term appears to have been deliberately introduced to give the semblance of a continued discharge of presidential responsibilities abroad.

“It is either the President is on vacation or is discharging his responsibilities as President. Even if he returns and escapes the hammer of the National Assembly, I encourage the opposition to head to court to test the validity of that nebulous term, ‘working vacation’. Even if the President is not impeached, it will help to enrich our jurisprudence,” he said.

Asogwa further described as an aberration the claim that the President remains in full charge while spending weeks abroad.

He argued that if the President was truly hale and hearty, as claimed by the Presidency, the death of 37 illegal miners in Minna should have been enough reason for him to cut short his vacation and return to commiserate with the victims’ families.

“It is only in Africa that you find the President of a country spending such a number of days in another country and yet claiming to still be in charge. That is an aberration! President Tinubu cannot afford to be fiddling like Emperor Nero while the nation burns,” he added.

On the President’s alleged plan to celebrate Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary in Lagos on October 1, Asogwa said the decision appears incongruous.

According to him, by tradition, the President is expected to inspect the Guard of Honour on Independence Day, questioning whether he would now do so in Bourdillon.

He, however, noted that the country has not yet reached the situation witnessed during the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2009–2010.

Asogwa recalled that President Tinubu was recently seen in France signing a $7 billion contract for the Deep Seaport in Ogun State, unlike the late President Yar’Adua’s case, which was completely shrouded in secrecy, leaving Nigerians to rely on third parties for information.

He said it was because of the Yar’Adua experience that the mandatory requirement to transmit power to the Vice President while proceeding on vacation was introduced into the Constitution.

However, he lamented that the recent actions of President Tinubu appear to have rendered that provision inoperable.