The Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the forthcoming Presidential Election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has called for the immediate impeachment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his alleged prolonged absence from the country without formally transmitting power to the Vice-President.
According to a statement by the Adewole Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign Council, Adebayo accused Tinubu of breaching the 1999 Constitution by overstaying his vacation without a formal and lawful transfer of authority.
The statement signed by Comrade Mark Adebayo, Director of Communications , Adewole Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign Council and made available to news men in Abuja. cited Section 145(1) of the Constitution, which requires the President, whenever proceeding on vacation, medical treatment or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, to transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The statement said until a contrary declaration was transmitted, the functions of the President were to be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.
The council described Tinubu’s alleged failure to comply with the constitutional provision as a disregard for the rule of law,
It pointed out that the situation contrasted with the practice under former President Muhammadu Buhari, who, according to the statement, formally transmitted power to former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo whenever he travelled abroad for vacation or medical treatment.
The campaign council also expressed concern over what it described as the simultaneous absence of both the President and Vice-President from the country.
It said leaving Nigeria without a “clear, constitutionally empowered leader in residence” posed a threat to national security and could create delays in critical decision-making.
Reacting to the development, Adebayo said the Constitution was the supreme law of the country and should not be treated as a suggestion.
“A country cannot be run like a private estate or an absentee-landlord enterprise. The Constitution is not a polite suggestion; it is the supreme law of the land,” he said.
“When a President treats the grundnorm of our democracy with contempt by abandoning his post without transmitting power, he abdicates his legitimacy to govern. This is a severe infraction, and the constitutional remedy for such a breach is clear: impeachment!”
Adebayo also criticised the National Assembly, alleging that it had failed to perform its constitutional oversight responsibilities by not initiating impeachment proceedings against the President.
He described the legislature as a “rubber-stamp legislature” and accused it of operating as an extension of the executive arm rather than as an independent check on executive power.
The campaign council called on Nigerians, civil society organisations and constitutional lawyers to speak out against what it described as a dangerous precedent and demanded what it termed an immediate return to constitutional order.
On healthcare, Adebayo said his administration would work to end or significantly reduce medical tourism by public office holders through improvements in Nigeria’s health institutions.
“Under my watch, medical tourism by public office holders would significantly reduce or fizzle out entirely because I will fix our health institutions with uncompromising alacrity as President and any public official that wants to have medical treatment abroad would have to do so at his own expense,” he said.
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