Reactions have continued to trail President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the senate where he asked the Vice President to coordinate the activities of the government without necessarily referring to him as the Acting President.
The letter has continued to raise dust and overheating the polity.
However, a lawmaker, Prince Gbolahan Dada, representing Ogun West has insisted that the president did the right thing by transmitting power through a letter to the senate, insisting that Yemi Osinbajo is the Acting President, according to the constitution.
Senator Gbolahan in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST said going by section 145 of the 1999 constitution as amended, Vice president, Osinbajo is the acting president of Nigeria in the absence of the president.
According to him, ‘’The president has done what he is supposed to do. Whenever a president is leaving the country to attend any function, what he should do is to transmit letter to the senate, the law is very clear on section 145 of the 1999 constitution which stipulates that where the president is absent, the vice president acts, and that’s what he has done. He must transmit a letter to the senate indicating his intention to travel.’’
He insisted the Vice president should be addressed as the Acting President. He said, ‘’As far as the constitution is concerned, he should be addressed as the acting president, he must be referred to as the acting president because that’s what the law says. My take is what the law says, because it’s stipulated there that whenever the president is out of town and he transmits letter to the senate of his intention to travel, the vice president is automatically in acting capacity, that’s the provision of the law and that’s what is in the constitution.
When asked whether the Executive and the Legislative arms are in a sour relationship, he said, ‘’In a democracy like ours, face-off between the presidency and the senate is not abnormal. They may not be on the same sides at certain times, it’s nothing permanent, you can see that in England and other countries; everybody has to stay within his own domain and work. I don’t see anything serious, the face-off is about positions, listen to me and I listen to you; at the end of the day, we come out with a conclusion,’’ the Senator said.
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