I'm totally cool with him taking some time off, he has put a lot of effort into his solo musician career and has spent a lot of time studying politics and such, which combined, can be very stressful and tiring.
Also, doing one thing for too long can get stale. He obviously has other ambitions in life that he should definitely try out.
The only think that I'm worried about is that when/if he comes back, he'll be totally weird. Look at some other artists, after taking time off, they come back as totally different people with totally different music.