President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday departed Abuja for routine medical check-up in London, leaving a strong directive to Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo to effectively take charge in his absence.
Just before he departed Abuja for London on Sunday, President Buhari was reported by Per Second News to have declared publicly that Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo would be in charge during his two-week medical vacation.
The medium said it could not confirm if the President had written the National Assembly to formally transmit power to Osinbajo.
The president was quoted to have said the “Vice-president is in charge’.’
Buhari told State House correspondents before departing for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, that there would be no vacuum as a result of his absence, saying he had capable hands to run the government.
Read him: “Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo will be in charge while I’m away. Well, I cannot claim to be doing the work alone. The government is fully represented.
“The Vice-president is there; constitutionally when I’m away he is in charge and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and then the Chief of Staff. So I have no problem.’’
On the ability of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to conduct a successful national convention, Buhari expressed the optimism that it had the capacity to organize the convention as scheduled.
“Well, they should wait and see. How did we come as a party to take power from the ruling party (PDP) who had been there before us for so many years? So we have the capacity, everything will be alright,’’ he said in response to reporters’ questions.
APC had postponed its convention twice since 2021 and the last being February 26, 2022. Party members have been expressing doubts about the feasibility of the March 26 new convention date as a result of unresolved crises in some state chapters particularly Kwara, Ogun, Osun, Zamfara and Oyo States.
Other vexed issue is the choice of National Chairman through consensus which has pitted President Buhari against the gogovernors.
It would be recalled that the president had initially planned to embark on the trip from Nairobi, Kenya after attending the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) at 50 in that country.
The president’s spokesperson, Mr Femi Adesina had on March 1, in a statement said that from Kenya, the president would proceed to London for ”routine medical checks that will last for a maximum of two weeks.”
However, the president returned to Abuja on Friday at about 1.p.m before embarking on the London trip on Sunday.
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