Human rights activist and lawyer, Chidi Odinkalu, has criticised President Bola Tinubu over his extended vacation in Europe, saying the Nigerian leader is behaving like Nigerians who “japa” abroad to work as housekeepers.
Odinkalu said Nigerians who leave the country to clean houses and take up menial jobs abroad are doing essentially what Tinubu is currently doing by staying in Europe while the presidents of some of the countries he is visiting are in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.
He made the remarks on Channels Television on Wednesday while discussing Tinubu’s absence from Nigeria due to his extended vacation in Europe.
Speaking about the constitutional provision on the transmission of power after the President has been away for 21 days, Odinkalu said the matter was not straightforward.
“It’s not that straightforward. We’ve got to be intellectually honest, whether or not we agree with that. The Constitution says 21 days. When you look at the Interpretation Act, the 21 days would mean 21 working days, and 21 working days is effectively four weeks.
“Sadly, four calendar weeks, because you don’t count public holidays, you do not count weekends.
“But look, every other thing about this is very squalid, and that’s putting it rather mildly. Of course, my favourite country is across the border, Cameroon. Paul Biya visits Cameroon. He lives in Switzerland and visits Cameroon from Switzerland, right?
“He’s just left back to Switzerland, for instance, having been in Cameroon for like four or five days after nearly 80 days of being away.
“Now, President Tinubu has been away for 24 days. It’s beginning to look like Nigeria is a vacation spot, and France is really where the Nigerian capital is and where he goes to do business.
“I don’t think people should be telling us that our President is running the country. Nigeria effectively has become an ungoverned territory. This is exactly what it is. Nigeria is ungoverned.
“We’ve been talking about our insecurity situation as a reflection of ungoverned territories, and here we are.
“The people running the country have abdicated, gone to look after countries to become basically house sitters in countries whose presidents are in New York.
“So, the President of France is in New York at the moment. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is in New York at the moment. Our President is looking after Europe.
“That’s what people japa from Nigeria to do and become housekeepers, to go and clean houses for other people. That’s exactly what that President is doing. That’s terrible.
“There’s no way to make this sound good or look good, no matter how legalistic you want to be about it.
“It says something terribly squalid about the attitude that leaders at the highest levels bring to governance, and to then casualise everything, they say the country is going to be run by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“That is, frankly, something I don’t want to. I could be quite brutal in describing that, but I don’t want to use the expression ‘sad’.
“I just think that we cannot take ourselves seriously if we are going down that route.”
