President Bola Tinubu returned to Nigeria on Tuesday evening after about four weeks in Europe, telling reporters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos that he was healthy and ready to resume work.
Responding to questions about concerns over his health, the President said the speculation was a normal feature of politics. “Rumours will always be emanate from politics. I am hale and strong. I am ready to work. The fact remains that I am here, healthy, sound and ready to go,” he said, according to a Vanguard report.
Tinubu arrived in Lagos from Paris, where the Presidency said he spent the latter part of a working vacation. He had left Nigeria on 30 August, travelling first to London before moving on to France, in a trip the Presidency initially described as three weeks of annual leave.
The stay drew attention less for its purpose than its length. On 21 September, the Presidency announced that the President had extended his time abroad by a few days, with a return expected at the end of the month.
That extension pushed the trip past the three weeks first announced, and it is where the political argument took hold. The original leave elapsed around 20 September, the same day Vice President Kashim Shettima left for New York to lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
With both the President and his deputy out of the country at the same time, opposition figures and civil society groups raised questions about who was formally in charge. Much of the debate turned on Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that a President proceeding on vacation, or otherwise unable to perform the duties of office, should transmit a written declaration to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, allowing the Vice President to act.
The African Action Congress candidate in the 2027 election, Omoyele Sowore, was among the most vocal. In a statement he argued that no public confirmation existed that such a declaration had been sent, and urged the National Assembly to invoke Section 145 and make Shettima Acting President. He also rejected the Presidency’s “working vacation” description, saying the Constitution made no provision for it.
The dispute moved to court on Monday, 28 September, when the AAC filed an originating summons at the Federal High Court in Abuja through its national legal adviser, Inibehe Effiong. The party is asking the court to declare that Tinubu’s failure to transmit a declaration was unlawful, and that the National Assembly’s failure to authorise Shettima to act once the vacation exceeded 21 days was unconstitutional. The claims are yet to be heard.
The Presidency has held a different position throughout. Its spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said the President remained in contact with officials at home and continued to issue directives on national matters while abroad, and Senate President Godswill Akpabio publicly rejected the suggestion that the office was vacant.
Legal opinion has also been divided on whether Section 145 applies at all. Some lawyers cited in coverage of the debate argued the provision is meant for a President genuinely unable to govern, not one directing affairs remotely, while others insisted the test was formal compliance rather than physical presence.
Peter Obi, the Nigerian Democratic Congress candidate, entered the debate from a different angle, questioning the President’s absence from the UN General Assembly and other engagements. Shettima delivered Nigeria’s national statement in New York in the President’s place.
The Presidency linked the European stay to official business alongside the leave. During his time in France, according to the Presidency, Tinubu met French President Emmanuel Macron and the businessman Vincent Bolloré, with the Bolloré talks said to centre on investment in Nigeria’s creative and digital economy, including film, entertainment and fibre optic infrastructure. Discussions were also linked to the proposed Gateway Deep Sea Port in Ogun State.
Tinubu’s travel record has drawn scrutiny before. His overseas trips since taking office in May 2023 have repeatedly prompted debate about their frequency and duration, often at moments of domestic economic strain, and this latest absence has revived long standing questions about handover procedure that the courts may now be asked to settle.
For now the President is expected to stay in Lagos for events marking Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary. The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation said he would attend an Independence Day lecture on 30 September, with his national broadcast scheduled for 1 October, before he returns to Abuja.