Vacation is a leisure period during which time a worker, in whatever category or capacity in an organisation, public or private, based on the dictates of their office, is permitted to take time off to go and rest in order to come back to his/her duty post more refreshed, more energised and more revitalised.
Within such a period, the worker can travel out of his/her immediate vicinity, be it to another country or remote village, and then come back at an officially agreed time.
In Nigeria, it is not only the traditional Civil or Public servants who go on vacation; elected political officers have the right to go on vacation.
Some use the opportunity to get treatment, and some go on picnics. So, the way such persons utilise their time on holiday is entirely their business.
A typical American president spends a vacation balancing rest and recreation with continuous official work with heavy security.
The country has a designated place, usually Camp David. This rustic government-owned retreat in the mountains of Maryland has served as a classic weekend and holiday getaway for decades, offering privacy and a place to host foreign leaders. While many modern presidents prefer their own homes or private resorts, such as Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, George W. Bush at his ranch in Texas, or Barack Obama in Martha’s Vineyard.
But something unusual usually rears its head each time presidents of Nigeria embark on vacation.
In the last few weeks, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu left the shores of Nigeria after he had earlier declared his intention to travel abroad for vacation and return in September to begin his electioneering campaign.
The President, who left the country on August 30 for a three-week vacation. His overstay became a national issue and a political point. Critics argued that it was not that they did not want their president to go on leave, but they were bothered about the regularity and frequency of such vacations.
Others who argued in favour of the president said that in this age and time of the internet, the world has become a global village, making it possible for people to work from anywhere across the globe.
Some of them pointed out that the crafters of the nation’s Constitution did not envisage a time when the physical absence of a president in the country would not mean a complete pulse on his job.
The situation was, however, not helped by the absence of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, who was also away in the United States of America for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting at the time the president was away. The National Assembly was also in recess. The opposition screamed foul, pointing out that the country was running on autopilot.
What has emerged is that since 1999, Nigerian presidents have always travelled to the point of irritation in the estimation of many. During the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the late Gani Fawehinmi was always documenting how many times the president travelled in a month or quarter. He was always addressing the press and issuing out releases on that.
Obasanjo used to say that he was for the interest of the country. He said he travelled to 97 countries. Reports that tracked his journeys stated that he made about 148 journeys across his two terms in office from 1999 to 2007.
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua spent 93 days (approximately 3 months) out of Nigeria during his final extended medical trip to Saudi Arabia from November 23, 2009, to February 24, 2010
The political impact of absentee president
Yar’Adua’s prolonged medical leave created a significant political and leadership vacuum in Nigeria. On February 9, 2010, the National Assembly invoked the “Doctrine of Necessity” to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the acting president.
As the dust raised by Yar’Adua’s habitual absence was about to settle, General Muhammadu Buhari raised the bar and tempo of presidential vacation in Nigeria to the extent that, on one of his trips, he came back and could not enter his office because the entrance door had “malfunctioned”. Part of the reasons were disclosed by his closest handlers while he was in the Aso Rock Villa.
In total, while he made 51 international trips, formal notifications or categorisations specifically labelled as “vacations” or extended medical leaves account for about five to six major blocks of time, totalling over 225 days abroad during his presidency.
President Tinubu spent a total of 30 days out of the country during his recent working vacation in Europe from August 30 to September 29, 2026.
The President was sworn in on May 29, 2023. Since then, he has made 52 foreign trips and spent about 261 days outside Nigeria, which is more than eight months abroad out of about three years in office.
Another compilation puts it at approximately 270 days abroad across at least 30 countries, with France being his most frequent destination. Tinubu’s extended vacations since his inauguration—particularly his late August to September 2026 trip to the UK and France—have sparked intense public debate and constitutional discussions across Nigeria.
Critics and social media pointed out that Tinubu spent over 21 days abroad on his 2026 late-summer break without formally transmitting a power-transfer letter to the National Assembly under Section 145 of the Constitution, allowing Vice President Shettima to formally act.
Civil society groups and parliamentary watchdogs questioned the validity of governing remotely, arguing that critical domestic issues—such as economic hardship and security challenges—require physical presence rather than governance from Europe. Toward the end of his four-week absence in September 2026, speculation surged regarding the President’s physical well-being.
Upon landing in Lagos, President Tinubu dismissed the rumours as political gossip, telling journalists he “enjoyed himself” and was fully sound, “ready to kick, ready to walk.”
Commentators have repeatedly criticised the choice of European countries for presidential retreats, with critics arguing it highlights a lack of faith in local infrastructure and healthcare systems, while supporters, conversely, maintain that the breaks, often timed ahead of demanding political cycles like the build-up to the 2027 election, are necessary for a leader under heavy administrative pressure to rest, recharge, and re-strategise.
Commenting on the issue of presidential holidays in Nigeria, Idris Shuaibu, a Political Affairs and Financial analyst, said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a human being who has blood and flesh in his body. Running a dynamic, complex, and convoluted country like Nigeria is not a tea party affair. If one gets tired or falls ill, should it be an issue? Our grouse with the handlers of Mr President is basically the mismanagement of information as regards the President’s health status, the vacation, and the constitutional requirements of transfer of power to the Vice President; the National Assembly ought to intervene in order that we know how many days a sitting President is entitled to as vacation or holidays. The amorphous use of the phrase “working vacation” should and must be scrutinised to ascertain if this is legal. As a human resource practitioner, I find the choice of the phrase most unwanted and uncalled for. You only come across it in our climate, which is sad and unfortunate. If a President is ill, why wouldn’t the citizens be allowed to know the state of the leader’s health? From late Presidents Yar’Adua and Buhari to Tinubu, Nigerians are always being taken for a ride when it comes to information about the whereabouts of our leaders, state of health, and other necessary information. One wonders, can anyone buy ailments? If the answer is no, why conceal illness or sickness?”
Adetokunbo Pearse, one of the governorship candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, said: “We don’t have a system where we can hold people accountable. Do you know why people can rebel and go on the street in a place like France? Number one, they have a history of protesting, just as they have in the North. If you mess up in the North they will protest against you, they will fight you, they will burn houses, if the whole of the country was like that, we would be able to achieve much change; because I am gonna say, in those countries they also have middle class that can afford to go on the street, in the North they don’t care if you are in the middle class, working class, children, they all protest.
“Beyond that, we also need a president who has the fear of God and integrity. If you see my manifesto, I will build a first-class international hospital in Lagos State; I know we can afford it. This thing is not as if you are going to build a $500million hospital with cash, no. You form partnerships with medical facilities abroad; they come here and build; it is just a question of will. I have the background of being close to England and America. I spent five years in England as a student and part-time teacher, and 20 years in America as a teacher and as a political consultant and strategist; so, I am very close to diverse cultures; that is what we will bring to bear. Until we have a president who understands that, then we cannot get the rest of the people who will do the right thing.
“In some African countries, if you do it… you go abroad, you stay three weeks, four weeks, you can’t come back. By the way, that is the way it used to be before independence; you can’t come back to Nigeria, you cannot do it. You can’t try it; if you do, before you come back, the government has changed. And we are going to get to that very soon.
“Buhari was sick for months; he couldn’t even walk; he was taking treatment. If you want to be president in some of these countries, Kenya, South Africa, your medical records must be clear. Tinubu is not qualified to be president. From the beginning, I said it, his heath is not good, Buhari wasted our time, money and energy, we didn’t have a president for almost a year, Yar’Adua, his health was so bad, he should have been disqualified on health ground. That is why education is very important. Most people in the National Assembly are not educated; they have this or that degree, but that does not mean they are educated. They are literate but not educated. They cannot do the right thing. If the National Assembly is able to hold the president accountable, there is a law, there is a Constitution. If you are going on holiday for two weeks, three weeks, you hand over to the vice president; if the vice president is not there, it is the Senate President; this last United Nations General Assembly, the president was away, vice president was away, Senate President was away, that shows you how irresponsible things have become,” he said.
Indeed, the president’s vacation should not cause any hullabaloo, since the constitution is there. What then does the constitution say? Under the 1999 Constitution (as amended in 2010 after the Yar’Adua crisis), the President has the full right to go on vacation. It is in Section 145.
Section 145(1) says, “Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he SHALL transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the Vice-President shall perform the functions of the President as Acting President.”
145(2): “In the event that the President is unable or fails to transmit the written declaration mentioned in subsection (1) within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by a resolution made by a simple majority of the vote of each House, mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of the office of the President as Acting President until the President transmits a letter that he is now available to resume his functions.”
In simple terms, the President can go on leave – annual leave, medical leave, working vacation – it is legal. He MUST write formally to the Senate President and Speaker before he goes. That letter automatically makes the VP Acting President. If he does NOT write within 21 days, NASS itself must, by vote, make the VP Acting President.
Being outside Nigeria does not mean he has lost power, unless the procedure above is followed. Only death, resignation, impeachment or permanent incapacity under Sec 143, 144, 146 creates a vacancy.
That is why the current debate about President Tinubu’s three-week Europe vacation in August-September 2026 is about Section 145, whether the letter was transmitted or not.
