Prominent Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Mike Ozekhome, has raised concern on the political implications of President Muhammadu Buhari extending his medical/holiday period abroad.
According to the prominent lawyer, Buhari’s extended holiday keeps the nation on “ethno-religious tenterhooks, dangerous precipice, uncomfortable tension, anxiety and a dark pall on government and governance.”
Ozekhome noted that it also reminds one of the dark better forgotten days of the Yar’dua brouhaha when what late Dora Akunyilu described as “the cabal” unceremoniously seized the reins of government and held the nation to unspeakable ransom.
Ozekhome made this known in a statement made available to The Punch.
He said: “God forbid a repetition of history.God forbid us behaving like the Bourbons of European history who learnt nothing and forgot nothing.
“On the legal implications, it is constitionally provided that once the president transmits his absence or inability to act to the National Assembly, then the Vice president Acts in his place.
“This means: that the VP takes full control of governance and government apparatus, thus leaving no vacuum in governance. He does it till the president returns.”
He added: “For crying out loud, let PMB address the nation physically on Skype. Let us see him. He is President of Nigeria, father of the nation.
“He belongs to government and the nation. This means Nigeria. He lost his anonymity and individuality the day he was voted into office as president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The only privacy he has is in his wife’s kitchen, his parlour and the other room.”