Standup9ja: ‘How Osinbajo will perform as Acting President’

Standup9ja: ‘How Osinbajo will perform as Acting President’

Senators spoken to by Standup9ja said the acting president can assent to the budget. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt, Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna), said the acting president is empowered to perform the functions of the President including assenting to budget. “If you are acting, it means you can perform all the functions of the President. Acting President Osinbajo has the power to assent to the budget. There is nothing he cannot do as an acting President,” he said. 

 

A source close to the leadership of the National Assembly who does not want to be named  said the acting President would not hesitate to assent to the fiscal document because he was involved in the processes that led to the passage. The source also said: “The acting president is constitutionally empowered to assent to it and I can assure you that he would not hesitate to do same because he was part of the making of the budget. At least I was part of two meetings he had with the leadership of the National Assembly over the budget. Right from the beginning, he has been involved in the budget, to some extend I can say more than even the President. If you can recall it was shortly after the president presented the budget to the joint session of the National Assembly that he left for his first medical trip,” he said.

Osinbajo had, while serving as acting president during Buhari’s first medical trip, sworn in Justice Walter Onnoghen as the 17th Chief Justice of Nigeria on March 7. The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocate (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, believes that the acting president has all the constitutional powers to swear in new ministers. “It shows that Buhari isn’t power-drunk. We’ve seen a situation where the then acting CJN was sworn in by the acting president as substantive CJN. He has the powers to take some major decisions for the country to move forward. All the noise people are making is out of mischief. The constitution is clear on this. Whatever decision that the president can take, the acting president can equally do same. So, those making all kinds of comments are only trying to create distraction and heat up the polity.”

The source added: “I think we have more serious things to focus our attention on than the noise people are making. The acting president and the president have good relationship, and as a country, we should encourage them and not try to do anything that will affect that.”

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), who is a lawyer, said there was nothing wrong if the acting president swears anyone in. “By virtue of Section 145, the acting president assumes all the powers exercised by the president by transmission of letter to the National Assembly,” he said.

For his part, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocate (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani believes that the acting president has all the constitutional powers to do so. “I think we have more serious things to focus our attention on than the noise people are making. The acting president and the president have good relationship, and as a country, we should encourage them and not try to do anything that will affect that,” he said.

On the possibility of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo reshuffling the federal cabinet, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Paul Ananaba, advises him to consult with President Buhari before taking any decision in this regard.

Ananaba, in a telephone chat with Standup9ja, concurs that the acting president is constitutionally empowered to exercise all the powers of the president. His words: “Professor Yemi  Osinbajo, as the acting president that he is currently, has and can exercise all the powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This includes the cabinet. However, it will be prudent, patriotic and wise for him to consult the president.”

Similarly, a human rights lawyer, Barrister Abubakar Sani, also emphasizes that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has same powers as President Buhari without any exception.

A retired diplomat, Suleiman Dahiru, says Acting President Osinbajo cannot sign letters of credence required for envoys’ deployment as the government of the foreign countries to which the ambassadors are accredited will be dealing with the president of Nigeria. “Letters of credence are signed by substantive presidents. It is from a head of state to a head of state...It is not proper to prepare letters of credence to foreign countries signed by the acting president. And this is one aspect of our situation that will have to take into account in conventional diplomatic practice,” he said. 

In the same vein, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bulus Lolo, says since the president has not vacated his office, he remains the only one to approve the posting of the ambassadors-designate. His words: “The president is not dead, he has not vacated his office…There can only be one president at a time and the acting president has not assumed the role of substantive president.”

However, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Argentina, Chive Kaave submits that since there is no legal limitation to the power of the acting president, Osinbajo can appoint officials whose duties are regulated by him. According to him, “The acting president has the same power, under the constitution, as the president. Osinbajo has no restriction on the power exercisable, including approving the deployment of ambassadors-designate.”

Then Osinbajo was also advised to be dispassionate in his decision on the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke. Leaders of civil society organisations (COS), in separate interviews with one of our correspondents, gave the advice. They pleaded for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter and its attendant security implications.

“I don’t think the acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, can do anything on the suspended officials. He does not seem to have the authority to act on it unless President Muhammadu Buhari acts or expressly asks him to act.”