Senate President Godswill Akpabio has dismissed suggestions that there is a presidential vacancy in Nigeria, insisting that President Bola Tinubu remains in charge of the country despite his current stay abroad.

Akpabio spoke in Akwa Ibom while inaugurating road projects executed by Governor Umo Eno.

The Senate President said Tinubu’s absence from the country should not be interpreted as a transfer of presidential powers, stressing that the president was on a working leave and continued to perform his official duties.

“I am not the acting president, because the president is still in power. The president is on a working leave. So, there’s no absence in Aso Rock,” he said.

Akpabio argued that Tinubu could continue to direct the affairs of government from outside the country, noting that modern technology had made it possible for leaders to communicate and issue directives remotely.

“What he cannot do here, he is doing abroad. The world has become a global village; you can give instructions from the internet about anything, so why are people complaining?” he stated.

He also cited Tinubu’s recent engagements abroad, including his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, as evidence that the president remained engaged in official duties.

“The other day, he was with President Macron on a state visit, discussing bilateral to bring things back to Nigeria,” Akpabio said.

The comments come amid reactions to the simultaneous absence of Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima from Nigeria, with some Nigerians questioning who was physically overseeing the country’s affairs while Tinubu was in France and Shettima attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Akpabio said Shettima’s attendance at the UN General Assembly was part of the administration’s official engagements.

“And then, because he could not make it to UNGA, the United Nations General Assembly, his vice-president went,” he said.

The Senate President further asserted that, as chairman of the National Assembly, he was the appropriate authority to speak on whether there was a vacancy in the presidency.

“There’s no vacancy; people who are talking are just talking. I’m the only person as chairman of national assembly that can speak the voice of national assembly and say there is vacancy and there will be vacancy,” he said.

“Right now, there is no vacancy. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is still in power and is still running the affairs of Nigeria.”

Akpabio also dismissed the criticism surrounding Tinubu’s absence, comparing those raising concerns to people who complain even when their immediate needs have been met.

“The people who are complaining are like people who are drinking water and say give me toothpick, the water is all for my teeth. They don’t know what to say,” he added.