On Nigeria’s London-Based President And The PSC bill Abracadabra -By Festus Ogun

I really don’t understand why people are jubilating on hearing that Buhari signed the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Bill into law in the UK while on an unconstitutional ‘private visit’. It is funny seeing people hail the President for wearing an ‘unusual’ shirt and “looking healthy and radiant” as opposed to the popular notion that he is in the UK for medical tourism.

Permit me to ask, is UK President Buhari’s duty post?

It is public knowledge that Abba Kyari took the bill to Buhari in London to sign when we have a Vice President in the country. Let’s not delve into the wastage of our national resources by Buhari, Abba Kyari and their entourage in this matter. Let’s ponder on this: if we were to be in a country where the spirit and letters of our laws are revered, the President would have transferred powers to the Vice President as provided under Section 145(1)(2) of the 1999 Constitution.

We have always maintained, in a series of legal analysis, that it is illegal for the President to go on a vacation of about 20 days without formally informing the National Assembly and constitutionally transferring power to the Vice President. I have also consistently argued that a public servant cannot legally and morally embark on a private visit leaving the citizens in the dark as to the purpose of his visit – since the financial burden of his tours is sponsored by our collective wealth. Unfortunately, we have a President that doesn’t give a damn about what the law says or what the people say.

You cannot tell the citizens you are going on a private visit and still go ahead to do public assignments. It raises the presumption that the President is only interested in leaving the country for the pleasure of it while the citizens are left suffering.

While others may hail this development, I feel strongly worried and quite ashamed that the President of my country, a public servant, can go on a ‘private’ vacation and sign a bill into law in a foreign land. This is the greatest insult on the people of this country. It is very wrong and condemnable.

If we say the Aso Rock Villa doesn’t have any significance and usefulness, can we just sell off the place to one of these moneybags?

Buhari is the most confused leader of our time.

Let those hailing the President for setting a dangerous precedent continue. A time is coming the President will celebrate the Independence Day on a ‘private visit’ to a foreign land and the ‘hailers’ will still go at length to justify it. After all, it is not expressly stated in the Constitution that the President must perform his duties within the territory of Nigeria. The President can even go as far as relocating to the UK and perform his executive duties therefrom. But I know verily that it would not have been the intention of the framers of the 1999 Constitution that the President performs his real executive powers from a foreign land.

Truth be told, ours is not a serious President. If by the time the suit we filed to challenge the illegal visit gets resolved in our favour, I wonder if the bill signed into law at such an “illegal place and period” will not amount to a nullity.

Let the hailing continue, that will not change the fact that this country is decaying than never before.

Festus Ogun