The Republic of Absent Presidents
Letters from Stockholm — The Kio Solution
By Kio Amachree
Three presidents. Three sickbeds abroad. Three shadow governments run by wives, nephews and courtiers whose names appeared on no ballot. This is not bad luck. It is the operating system of the Nigerian state.
Jeddah, 2009
On 23 November 2009, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was flown to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah. He never addressed Nigerians in person again. He did not transmit the letter to the National Assembly that Section 145 of the Constitution requires. For roughly three months the country had no functioning head of state, while a circle around the First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua, and a handful of ministers and officials — the “cabal,” as Nigerians called them — decided who could see the President, what documents left his room and whether the Vice President would be allowed to act. A delegation of ministers flew to Saudi Arabia and could not get into the ward.
It took a BBC telephone interview of a weak voice in January 2010, street protests, three lawsuits and finally a Senate “doctrine of necessity” on 9 February 2010 to make Goodluck Jonathan Acting President. Yar’Adua was flown home in an ambulance under police escort on 24 February. He died on 5 May. A nation of then 150 million people was governed for a season by whoever held the keys to a hospital room in Jeddah.
London, 2016–2025
Muhammadu Buhari came to power promising to end medical tourism. TheCable counted 171 days of medical leave in the United Kingdom by early 2021; SaharaReporters put the tally at about 200 days, seven months, by August 2021. In 2017 alone he spent 50 days in London, came home, and left again for 104 days — during a doctors’ strike at home. When he returned, the Presidency told us he could not use his office because rats had damaged the furniture.
Who governed? By Aisha Buhari’s own account, given first to the BBC in 2016 and later in her “hyenas and jackals” post, government had been hijacked by a few people who did not stand for election. The names Nigerians whispered were Mamman Daura, the President’s nephew, and Abba Kyari, his Chief of Staff. A Chief of Staff and a nephew, not a Vice President, became the address at which Nigeria was governed.
The State House Clinic received over ₦13 billion under Buhari. In 2020 it could not treat Abba Kyari; he was taken to a private hospital in Lagos. In July 2025 the former President died at The London Clinic. Eight years in power, and not one hospital in Nigeria that he trusted with his own body.
London, 2021–2026
Bola Ahmed Tinubu spent three months of 2021 in London after knee surgery, receiving governors, Speakers and the Northern Caucus at his bedside like a monarch in exile. In October 2024 he took a two-week “working vacation” in London and slipped across to Paris for an undisclosed “significant engagement.” On 30 August 2026 he left again: three weeks in Europe, London first, other destinations unnamed, itinerary undisclosed, official engagements unstated, return promised in time for “the hectic campaign for the January 2027 election.”
Meanwhile a ₦21 billion Presidential/VIP wing was built at the State House Clinic precisely so that Nigeria’s leaders would stop flying abroad. LEADERSHIP reported that more than a year after commissioning, neither the President nor the Vice President had used it, and that the Villa was considering handing it to a private operator. Nigeria loses, by estimates ranging from $1 billion to $2 billion a year, more in medical tourism than it spends on whole health programmes. The man who runs the country leads the exodus.
And who fills the room when he is away? Nigerians did not elect Remi Tinubu, yet she convenes governors, receives foreign delegations and announces programmes. Nigerians did not elect Seyi Tinubu, yet his name sits in lawsuits, contract chatter and party structures. I make no accusation of any crime against either of them. I make a constitutional observation: influence without office is the Nigerian disease, and it flourishes precisely when the officeholder is out of the country. Three times now the pattern has repeated — Turai, then Daura and Kyari, now the First Family — and three times the Vice President, the one man the Constitution actually names, has been treated as furniture.
The absurdity
Nigeria’s median age is about eighteen. We have over 200 million people, the largest population of university graduates in Africa, and a diaspora of doctors, engineers, bankers and scientists so large that British hospitals would struggle without Nigerian-trained staff. Nigerian surgeons operate in London. Nigerian professors teach at Wharton and Oxford. Nigerian founders build companies in Stockholm and Silicon Valley.
And whom do we send to Aso Rock? Men in their seventies and eighties, in visibly declining health, whose medical records are state secrets, who fly to the countries our best doctors emigrated to, and who leave the country to be run by relatives. We choose the oldest and frailest candidates the godfathers can agree on, then act surprised when the President is a voice on a telephone from a foreign clinic.
A country is not a retirement home for the political class. The presidency of Africa’s largest nation is not a reward for longevity in the party. It is a twelve-hour-a-day job for someone who can do twelve hours a day.
The Kio Solution
- A Section 145 letter, published within 24 hours, for every departure from Nigeria by the President or a governor. No letter, no legitimacy — and no official act signed abroad is valid without one.
- An annual, independently certified medical fitness report for the President and Vice President, laid before the National Assembly. Every candidate for 2027 should publish one before nomination.
- A statutory ban on state-funded foreign medical treatment for elected officials and their families while in office. Use the ₦21 billion clinic or open it to the public.
- A First Family Act: no spouse, child or relative of the President may convene officials, receive foreign delegations or sit in government meetings without a lawful appointment ratified by the Senate.
- A generational audit of the 2027 tickets. Parties should tell Nigerians why a country whose median citizen is eighteen keeps being offered candidates who cannot pass a fitness test.
If we cannot have a President who lives in Abuja, at least let us have a Constitution that governs in his absence. Nigeria belongs to Nigerians.
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Legal note: This article comments on matters of public record and on the constitutional roles of public office holders. No allegation of criminal conduct is made against any individual named. Published under Swedish press freedom protections.
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