The Chief of Staff Abba Kyari who flew to London yesterday in order to give President Buhari the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) bill to sign, is currently under fire. Nigerians have since accused the Chief of Staff of playing the role of the Vice President.
According to Akin Alabi who raised the issue on his Twitter timeline, he implied that the Nigerian Chief of Staff is very powerful and could be seen as the “Assistant President”.
Whether you like it or not, in a presidential system of government (eg, US, Nigeria), the post of the Chief of Staff is more “powerful” than that of the Vice President. He is the assistant President. The Vice President is a stand in for the president.
It is NOT the duty of the Vice President to take a bill to the president. It’s the job of an assistant. Like the Chief of Staff. The Vice President has been excellent performing his constitutional duties and the ones assigned to him.
I don’t know whether there are problems between the Chief if Staff and the Vice President. Maybe there is. It’s politics and it happens everywhere. But with this bill signing issue, there is nothing out of the ordinary for the Chief of staff to bring a document for the president.
Other Nigerians have reacted to this tweet expressing their opinions in a thread.
@MrBanksOmishore
As a member of Nigerian legislature, You can raise it on the floor that it is unconstitutional for @MBuhari not to hand over to @ProfOsinbajo when he is out of the country. It reminds me of when ObJ tried to sideline Atiku. We should protect the office regardless of who is there
@FaventM
Were we expecting the VP to go to London and get the particular bill signed? Who stands in for the president when he is not in the country? Should we allow both the Pres and his Vice to be out of the country at the same time? We like making moles out of an ant hill set.
@WickedResponses
Sir based on the context of what Abba did ur tweet is wrong. Chief of staff is powerful only when president is at work. But the president is not at work, his vice is at work. So he should ve either go home till D president return to work or he should report to next boss at work.
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@DonPEKA
Mr. Akin…Save this tweet for the future…you will need. This standards you guys are setting and applauding, will backfire and it will be costly. Continue. We now Have ASSISTANT PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT….No wahala
@efa101
In the US, I will say the secretary of state is “more powerful” than the VP. I may not agree with chief of staff. In Nigeria though, it’s whoever the president wants to be “powerful” that will be powerful. In this case, the president chose his CoS. Good morning sir
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