Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong says President Tinubu and VP Shettima leaving Nigeria together breaks the constitution.
A human rights lawyer named Inibehe Effiong has stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima leaving Nigeria at the same time is a direct violation of the 1999 Constitution.
Speaking during a live television interview on Tuesday morning, September 22, 2026, the legal practitioner explained that Nigeria cannot be left without a clear leader physically present inside the country.
President Tinubu traveled out of Nigeria on August 30 to start a working vacation in London. While the President was still away, Vice President Shettima also left Abuja on September 20 to represent Nigeria at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
The main reason why this development has sparked a heated legal argument across the country is that Section 145 of the Nigerian Constitution provides clear instructions on how power must be handed over whenever a president leaves the country for a vacation or cannot do his job.
According to the law, if the President stays outside the country for more than 21 days without sending an official letter to the National Assembly to hand over power to the Vice President, lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives are supposed to step in and pass a simple vote to make the Vice President the Acting President.
Giving a detailed explanation during the television broadcast, human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong pointed out that the President has stayed away for over three weeks without following the full rules written in the law book.
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Criticizing the situation on television, human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong stated, “Under Section 145, subsection one, under the Constitution, presidential powers are powers that are domiciled exclusively in the President, namely the powers of the Commander-in-Chief”.
Calling on lawmakers in the National Assembly to do their job and correct the error immediately, the lawyer added, “What President Tinubu has done is not only an abdication of his constitutional mandate; it is a brazen violation of the Constitution, and he should be compelled”.
Challenging the members of the Senate and House of Representatives to hold a meeting and pass an official resolution, Effiong stressed, “The National Assembly now has a duty, and this is the challenge to them to prove to Nigerians that they are not a rubber stamp. They must convene this morning to pass a resolution”.
The Presidency has defended the trips. Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga released a statement explaining that President Tinubu is still in full control of government affairs from abroad and will return home at the weekend.
However, legal experts insist that the supreme law of the land requires a formal transfer of power whenever top leaders travel abroad.
Jennifer Baba is a journalist, international news correspondent, and writer at Moderncrux, where she covers artificial intelligence, fintech, emerging technologies, global politics, and international affairs. Based in Nigeria, she is passionate about transforming complex global developments into clear, engaging stories that inform and inspire readers.
