Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Godswill Akpabio, has declared that there is no power vacuum in Nigeria, insisting that President Bola Tinubu remains firmly in charge of the affairs of the country despite his current working leave abroad.
Akpabio, who dismissed suggestions that Tinubu’s absence from the country had created a vacancy in the presidency, said the President had continued to exercise his executive responsibilities remotely while undertaking official engagements outside Nigeria.
He made the declaration while responding to questions over the President’s absence from the country and the implications of his failure to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in person.
According to Akpabio, the President’s working leave should not be interpreted as an absence from office, stressing that Tinubu had remained in control of the government.
“I am not the Acting President. Because the President is still in power. The President is on a working leave. So, there is no absence in Aso Rock,” he said.
Akpabio further argued that the President’s physical location did not prevent him from directing the affairs of government, pointing to Tinubu’s official engagements abroad as evidence that he remained actively involved in governance.
“What he cannot do here, he is doing abroad,” he said, adding that the President had recently engaged French President Emmanuel Macron on bilateral issues aimed at advancing Nigeria’s interests.
He also explained that Vice President Kashim Shettima’s representation of Nigeria at the United Nations General Assembly did not signify any transfer of presidential authority.
“And then, because he could not make it to UNGA—United Nations General Assembly—his Vice President went. There is no vacancy. People who are talking are just talking,” Akpabio stated.
The Senate President went further to assert the authority of the National Assembly leadership in determining whether a constitutional vacancy exists.
“I am the only person, as Chairman of the National Assembly, that can speak the voice of the National Assembly and say there is vacancy, and there will be vacancy. Right now, there is no vacancy, and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is still in power,” he said.
Akpabio maintained that modern technology had also changed the way executive authority could be exercised, arguing that a president did not have to be physically present in Abuja to direct government business.
“Nigeria has become—the world has become a global village. You can give instruction even from the internet, anywhere,” he said.
His comments place the issue squarely around the distinction between physical absence and constitutional absence, with Akpabio insisting that Tinubu’s temporary stay abroad does not amount to relinquishing presidential authority.
