Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will preside over the nation’s affairs for two weeks while President Muhammadu Buhari is away on a medical trip to London in the United Kingdom.
Buhari stated this in Abuja on Sunday while briefing reporters at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport before the presidential plane, Air Force 1, took off from the Presidential Wing.
Buhari said he is not running the administration alone as other key officials including the vice president, the chief of staff, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), and others are carried along.
“Well, I cannot claim to be doing the work alone. The government is fully represented; the vice president is there; constitutionally when I’m away, he’s in charge,” President Buhari said.
The President, who initially planned to embark on the trip to London from Nairobi, Kenya, where he attended the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) 50th-anniversary event, returned home last Friday.
He also spoke about the forthcoming national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), expressing confidence that the event will be conducted smoothly.
“Well, they should wait and see. How did we come as a party to take power from the ruling party who had been there before us for so many years? So, we have the capacity, everything will be alright,” he said.
Buhari has come under criticism, notably from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for his trip to London. The PDP accused him of abandoning Nigerians amid the petrol scarcity and industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), amongst others.