…Says it’s height of executive rascality
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
President Ahmed Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, have come under fire for traveling out of Nigeria simultaneously.
President Tinubu travelled to France for a two-week working visit, while Shettima went to Senegal for the country’s 65th Independence Day Anniversary celebrations on April 4.
The action of the President and his Vice, has, however, drawn the ire of a former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who described it as ” the height of executive rascality.”
Reacting to the development, the former Senate President faulted President Tinubu and the Vice President
Lampooning President Tinubu and Shettima for “leaving Nigeria headless,” Senator Wabara accused the duo of negligence of duty.
“This is a serious dereliction of duty and display of utter disregard for the people of Nigeria,” Wabara fumed.
The former Senate President explained that “while Mr President has the right to travel outside the country when necessary, he should duly hand over power to his deputy in an acting capacity.”
According, Wabara, “it is absolutely not proper for the VP who should be the Acting President to also travel out of the country while Mr President is still away.”
According to him, if Nigeria must be represented at the event in Senegal, the relevant Government Official, “in this case the Foreign Affairs Minister, should have been delegated instead of the Vice President leaving the country headless.”
Recalling that it was not the first time Tinubu and the VP would be traveling out of the country at the same time, Wabara said such action “is alien to our democracy.”
“This amounts to a flagrant display of disdain for the people on whose mandate they occupy such sensitive offices,” he said.
The former Senate President maintained that “the office of the President and Vice President of a country is so serious that the occupants should place national interest above personal gains.”
Wabara said that the President and his deputy jetting out of Nigeria while the country is on fire “is to say the least, an insult both to Nigeria and the offices they occupy.”
He, therefore, advised President Tinubu and his Vice PresidentShettima “to stop toying with the future of Nigerians and face governance.”
Wabara said: “It’s baffling to hear that the President and his Vice President both abandoned governance and travelled out of the country at the same time, thus leaving the country headless.
“How can the country be burning and the number one and number two citizens of the country be away? This can only happen in Nigeria.
“How else can a leader show disdain for the people he swore an oath to lead and defend. Leaving the country headless at a time so many boiling issues demand presidential intervention, is a misplacement of priority.
“With the rising tension in Edo State and threats of reprisal in parts of the North; the bloodbath in Plateau, Zamfara, Sokoto and Benue; the political apprehension in Rivers and Bayelsa states; plus the festering insecurity in many states; traveling out of Nigeria is the least to expect from any serious-minded, patriotic President and his Vice President.
“Tinubu and his Vice President, have again, clearly demonstrated that either they are overwhelmed or simply not prepared for governance. They have shown that they have little or no regard for Nigeria and Nigerians.”
Senator Wabara challenged the National Assembly not to fail in its constitutional role of checkmating the excesses of the Executive.
Alleging that “democracy in Nigeria is under state capture,” Wabara warned against what he called “executive rascality.”
