That player is "turtling". It's best to eliminate "turtlers" early for the very reason you're experiencing (imo) .
Depending on your game's settings, if you don't return you'll likely be considered "inactive" in 2-3 days and your country will be taken over by the AI (as you saw happening to others).
From the time you stop playing, until the time you're considered inactive, anything that happens to your country will be counted toward your statistics (if it's a "ranked" game....as per the game's description). Once you've gone inactive nothing will count against your stats.
Chances are, unless you conquer the turtler, he'll conquer you so, in that regard, your current VP total in the game won't matter.
