State Govt Reveals Acting President Amidst Tinubu’s Absence
The Akwa Ibom State Government has sparked controversy after describing Senate President Godswill Akpabio as the “Acting President of Nigeria” during an official event in Uyo on Tuesday.
According to Premium Times, the description was contained in a post published on the state government’s official Facebook page while it livestreamed the reception of Ibom Air’s newly acquired Airbus A220-300 aircraft at the Victor Attah International Airport.
The post was subsequently edited, removing the reference to Akpabio as acting president. The original post announced Akpabio’s arrival for the aircraft reception and referred to him as “Arrival of the Acting President of Nigeria, Sen. Dr Godswill Akpabio, GCON, President of the Senate, Chairman of the National Assembly…”
The event formed part of activities marking the 39th anniversary of the creation of Akwa Ibom State.
The development comes amid President Bola Tinubu’s three-week vacation in Europe, while Vice President Kashim Shettima had also travelled outside the country to represent the President at an African Union summit in Angola.
Tinubu left Abuja on August 30 for his annual vacation, with London announced as his first destination. The Presidency said he would return after the break and resume engagements ahead of the 2027 elections.
Shettima travelled to Luanda on August 29 to attend the 21st Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union on behalf of Tinubu. He returned to Abuja on Monday after completing the assignment.
The absence of both the President and Vice President has generated debate, with some Akwa Ibom residents also referring to Akpabio as Nigeria’s acting president on social media.
One Facebook user, Ima Utip, wrote, “Thank God our Senator Godswill Akpabio is the acting president…let’s build Ibom Deep Seaport.”
However, the constitutional procedure for presidential absence does not automatically make the Senate President acting president whenever the President and Vice President are outside the country.
Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides that when the President is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to perform the functions of his office, he is expected to transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Under the constitutional arrangement, the Vice President, not the Senate President, is ordinarily the person who performs the President’s functions during a temporary absence, provided the relevant constitutional procedure is followed.
Section 146 deals with a different situation. It provides that the Senate President assumes the office of President where the offices of both President and Vice President become vacant.
That provision relates to a vacancy in the offices, rather than a situation where the President and Vice President are temporarily out of the country.
Consequently, the Akwa Ibom government’s description of Akpabio as “Acting President of Nigeria” does not, on its face, align with the constitutional provision governing temporary presidential absence.
However, the state government later removed the controversial description from its Facebook post.
When contacted on Tuesday night by Premium Times, the Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, initially denied that the state government had referred to Akpabio as acting president.
After being informed that a screenshot of the original post was available, however, Umanah suggested that the wording may have resulted from an error by the person handling the state’s social media account.
“I don’t know. Maybe somebody made a mistake. There’s nothing like that (acting president) in the country,” he said.
Asked why the description appeared on the government’s official platform, the commissioner maintained that it was not an authorised position of the state government.
“Nobody authorised that (reference) here. Maybe the people typing may have made a mistake, but that cannot be the position of the state government,” Umanah added.
