Group Wants National Assembly To Issue Constitutional Number Of Days President Can Be Away

Group Wants National Assembly To Issue Constitutional Number Of Days President Can Be Away

A civil society organisation, Partners for Electoral Reform (PEF), has urged the National Assembly to use ongoing constitutional review to provide for duration the president could be absent from duty.

The call came as President Muhammadu Buhari returned to Nigeria after 103 days in London for medical treatment.

The chairman of the group, Ezenwa Nwagwu, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja, while welcoming Mr. Buhari back.

He said the protest for Mr. Buhari to “resume or resign” which was carried out while he was away, was unnecessary, but that the constitutional lapse thrown up by his long absence needed to be addressed.

“Our constitution never contemplated the situation where the president will be away for a long time without defining clearly how long that can be.

“Yes, the president never broke any law by staying away for the period he did; he followed the constitutional path but his absence for so long was the issue.

“The lacuna in our Constitution is one in which we will have to deal with. If we don’t deal with it today we will have to deal with it in the future.

“This is because the deep question will be that if a president is inaugurated and falls ill after, can he just transmit power and stay away for any length of time?” Mr. Nwagwu said.

He, however, said it was a thing of joy that President Buhari had returned, and prayed that God would sustain his recovery to enable him to take charge of governance.

He added that the president’s recovery and return had punctured the lies being peddled that he was in coma.

(NAN)