Why Akpabio Rejected Acting President Title Amid Tinubu’s Absence - Rufai Oseni

Arise Television Morning Show anchor Rufai Oseni has given his take on why Senate President Godswill Akpabio insisted he was not Nigeria’s acting president while President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima were both outside the country.

Speaking on Monday while discussing Tinubu’s extended stay abroad, Oseni said Akpabio’s swift rejection of the acting president label revealed an unwillingness to assert the National Assembly’s role as a co-equal arm of government.

Oseni argued that Nigerians should not expect the legislature to robustly challenge the executive, pointing to its earlier endorsement of a state of emergency in Rivers State during a political dispute between a godfather and godson.

“So, if you think that this National Assembly will speak up and fight for you. It’s either you’re delusional, or you don’t read the news,” Oseni said.He noted that some of Akpabio’s political associates had begun referring to him as acting president while Tinubu and Shettima were away.

This prompted the Senate President to quickly clarify his position to avoid complications at the highest levels of power.

“Is it Mr. Akpabio that was busy going about to even exonerate himself to say ‘I’m not the acting president. Don’t call me acting president.’ This was because while President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima were away, some of the political surrogates of Akpabio were already calling him acting president. So he needed to exonerate himself,” Oseni stated.

He questioned whether the same leadership could effectively defend the principle of separation of powers, adding that the thinkers who developed the concept of co-equal arms of government “will turn in their grave when they see the way it’s being done in Nigeria.”