The Good Governance Advocates, a pro-democracy group,  has declared the Presidency vacant, arguing that ailing President Muhammad Buhari is unfit to continue in office. The group said the constitution has made provision for an exit plan for any person who is unfit to continue in office on account of il-health.

The statement, signed by the group’s Lead Partner, Ifedayo Obi, reads:

“This is to inform the people of Federal Republic of Nigeria that vacuum has been created since January 19, 2017 in the Office of the President due to illness of our dear President Muhammad Buhari. The issue of governance has been hanging on balance since President Buhari embarked on the first medical tourism in January till March 10, 2017 when he returned. During his stay in the country till May 7 when he left for second trip, no meaningful official obligation can be traced to him as occupier of the highest seat of power. It is now a matter of necessity to know who is leading us.

“We should be worried of how APC and Buhari-led government are laying bricks of bad precedence for our nascent democracy by their singular act of promoting leadership vacuum. I hope one day another party will not come and put a corpse in Aso Rock as President. Our dear country is in dire need of vibrant leadership for good governance that will bail her out from many problems staring at her.

“For how long are we going to continue being led by proxy? We should not be holding over 180 million people to ransom just because of one man’s illness and political correctness.

Surprisingly, we are all behaving as if Nigeria is Zimbabwe where a President can abandon his job twice in four months based on medical tourism. President Buhari has said that age is no more on his side to lead us and today the reality has been evident to all. Therefore, we should enjoin him to resign and if people around him are holding him back in doing so, he should be declared incapable to continue in power. We don’t need an Acting President but a substantive President. Truly, anybody can fall sick and be prayed for to recover but we should not saddle such person with rigours of leading most populous black nation.

“President Buhari should recover speedily and return to his retirement home not Aso Rock while Yemi Osinbajo should be sworn in as President to complete his boss tenure that ends 2019. This is because old age syndrome will not allow President Buhari to perform as expected.

“However, if Osinbajo surpasses Nigerians’ expectations as he has been doing in the absence of his boss, Nigerians will want him to rule them beyond 2019, so no Anglo or Junaid can stop him. The narrative that power should return to North can’t fly again, the Southern region is not in Nigeria for geographical illustration. This region is here for business of governance, after the North had ruled for 38 years out of 57 years of Nigeria as an independent nation, it is a moral demand to allow other components to take their share of the coexistence at any given opportunity.

“Moreover, if the North wants to put up fight against constitution of our land like they did to immediate past administration, Nigerians are now wiser and they will resist any form of subversion. My advice for the Northern people is to always present a vibrant representative whenever the demand arises for leadership. To Prof. Anglo and Dr. Junaid, please allow constitution to always take its course and stop spiting trash.

“This nation belongs to all, therefore let us demand for Buhari resignation now or declare him unfit to rule us as Yemi Osinbajo takes over till 2019. Aso Rock is not for recuperating, enough of political correctness, by May 29, 2017 it will be two years of this government and 99% of promises made are yet to see light.”