Nigeria paralysed by leadership crisis

STI 21 Jan 2010

President in Saudi hospital but deputy has limited powers to deal with Muslim-Christian clashes

ABUJA (NIGERIA): Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and most populous nation, is paralysed by a power vacuum as its President lies bedridden in a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Nigeria has been effectively without a president for almost two months since Mr Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim, flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment of a heart ailment. Because he did not temporarily hand authority to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, his deputy cannot exercise full presidential powers.

'Our concern is that we're slipping into a constitutional crisis,' said Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, president of the Nigerian Bar Association.

It is an especially bad time for Nigeria to suffer a crisis of leadership, with violent clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs in the central city of Jos spreading to other parts of Plateau state.

About 300 people have died in the fighting, according to Muslim and Christian leaders and a paramedic, though there has been no official confirmation. Several hundred more have been reported wounded and some clinics were reportedly running out of medical supplies.

The unrest in Jos erupted on Sunday over plans to build a mosque in a mainly Christian district of the city riven by sectarian tensions for many years.

Mr Jonathan exercised his limited authority late on Tuesday, ordering extra troops to Jos to clamp down on the violence as soldiers and police enforced a 24-hour curfew.

But the uncertainty surrounding the presidency has raised fears that power in Nigeria could again fall into the hands of the military. Army officers have grabbed power six times since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, once sparking a civil war.

Mr Yar'Adua won the presidency after a disputed election in 2007. His inauguration marked Nigeria's first transfer of power from one civilian government to another.

Opposition and civic groups led by Nobel literature prize winner Wole Soyinka marched in Abuja last week to demand that Mr Yar'Adua relinquish office.

With more than 140 million people and 250 ethnic groups, Nigeria is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south. Violent eruptions linked to political, ethnic and sectarian divisions are common.

Allowing Mr Jonathan to replace Mr Yar'Adua may create new strains because of the policy of the ruling People's Democratic Party to alternate the presidency between the north and the south.

The handing of power to Mr Jonathan, a Christian Ijaw from the Niger Delta, may fuel tensions because a southerner would be finishing a northerner's term of office.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

I don't know what happen to Blogger.. The functions for font size and font colour have gone missing. I will usually highlight the main points in red for you and my comments and questions in blue. Anyway, just bear with this for a while until Blogger trouble shoot these problems. The article above is related to 'Development' in Geography. Remember in Chapter 9, you learnt about physical reasons such as the presence of raw materials will help speed up development? The textbook gave the example of Nigeria is well-endowed with oil and could export this valuable raw material for money. However, most of the money was to develop the urban areas.
Now the situation is that Nigeria is also suffering from political instability because of the absence of leadership due to the President's illness. In addition, the country is now going through religious conflict between Christians and Muslims. Look at all the factors that are affecting development.
I told you that while in textbook, we learn about the different factors but in reality, usually more than one factor is influencing the situation.