Buhari’s UK trip: Presidency speaks on president failing to notify NASS, hand over to Osinbajo

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has insisted that his principal can perform his duty from anywhere in the world.

Shehu stated this in response to a claim made by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that Buhari did not write to the National Assembly, to inform them of his trip to the United Kingdom.

Appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the PDP’s Deputy National Chairman, Yemi Akinwunmi, said the President ought to have notified the lawmakers, indicating his mission abroad and transferring power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

In response, Shehu said: “The President didn’t make a mistake by taking off without writing a letter to the National Assembly. The Constitution says 21 days is the back off point. That is where infringement is caused.

“But as it is now, there is no Constitutional or legal infraction that has happened. So the President is doing his work from wherever he is. Yes, it is right that the President can operate anywhere he is. If you are a Permanent Secretary and the President calls you from Abidjan and says you go and repair that road, are you going to tell him that Mr. President you are not a Nigerian in Abidjan, you are not going to do the work?

“Do you think you will have your job waiting for you the next day? These are matters of common sense,” he stated.

Buhari is expected to spend 10 days in the UK and return on May 5.