Tinubu’s 21-day absence: Sowore urges NASS to make Shettima Acting President.

The 2027 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has called on the National Assembly to activate Section 145(2) of the 1999 Constitution and mandate Vice-President Kashim Shettima to act as President.

Sowore said the call became necessary after President Bola Tinubu exceeded the 21-day constitutional window for presidential absence without transmitting a written declaration to the legislature.

Tinubu travelled out of Nigeria on August 30, 2026, for what the Presidency described as a three-week vacation. On September 21, the Presidency announced that the vacation had been extended by a few days.

Citing Section 145(1), Sowore said the President is required to transmit a written declaration to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives whenever he proceeds on vacation or is unable to discharge the functions of his office.

He noted that Section 145(2) empowers the National Assembly, by a simple majority in each chamber, to mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of President as Acting President where the President fails to transmit such declaration within 21 days.

According to Sowore, there has been no public evidence that President Tinubu transmitted the declaration transferring power to Shettima before or during his absence.

He therefore urged Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to publicly clarify whether they received the constitutional declaration.

Sowore dismissed the Presidency’s explanation that Tinubu was on a “working vacation” and remained in charge of governance from abroad, saying the Constitution does not recognise such a concept.

He also faulted the argument that delegating Shettima to represent the President at official events satisfied constitutional requirements.

“The issue is no longer simply about the President’s vacation but whether the constitutional procedure governing presidential absence has been followed,” Sowore said, insisting that the National Assembly should commence the Section 145(2) process if no valid transmission was made.