Time to invoke constitutional provision on ‘absent’ Buhari ―Fayose

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has called for the invocation of constitutional provisions on ailing President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been out of the country on medical grounds, since May 2017.

Governor Fayose, in a statement on Monday, said: “For a President who has spent 113 days abroad taking care of his health out of the 191 days in 2017, it is time for Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to be invoked.”

Fayose, in the statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said “President Buhari left Nigeria for London on May 7, 2017 and today is July 10, 2017, 64 clear days since Nigerians saw their president or heard anything from him. Even the president’s handlers are keeping Nigerians in the dark.

“Even though the number of days that a president can spend outside the country is not specified in the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the makers of the laws of Nigeria envisaged this kind of situation and made provisions for how to resolve it in Section 144.”

The governor contended that “the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the presidency cabal is in a state of dilemma as to whether to bring President Muhammadu Buhari back to the country with his present state or leave him in London,” and claimed that “the president has become a bad business for the cabal that imposed him on Nigerians.”

He insisted that Nigerians must be told the truth about the health of the president, saying “I told Nigerians then that President Buhari was a black-market packaged by the APC cabal that was only interested in seizing power by whatever means and now, I have been vindicated.

“It has therefore become pertinent that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) must invoke Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution by passing a resolution declaring that President Buhari is incapable of discharging the functions of his office.”

Governor Fayose, who insisted that he was not interested in President Buhari’s death, said freeing Nigeria from the hands of those who are presently holding the country to ransom should be the major concern of all well-meaning Nigerians.

“They are always quick to tell Nigerians that there is an Acting President in person of Prof Yemi Osinbajo and as such, no vacuum government. However, we all know the limitations of the Acting President. We know that there are so many things Prof Osinbajo cannot do and Nigerians are the ones bearing the consequences of a bed-ridden President.”