From the surrealism of ‘missing president’ Umaru Yar’Adua, linked to the outside world via a ghostly voiced interview with the BBC, and with attendant disputes of legitimacy and sovereignty, Nigeria has solved the crisis in its own way, by effecting what some call a ‘democratic coup’. One by one, the elected institutions of state (the powerful governors’ forum and both houses of the National Assembly) and several non-elected regional councils met and agreed to support the handover to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Whatever the constitutional doubts that remain, the 9 February resolution by the National Assembly, citing the ‘doctrine of necessity’, to recognise Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President was...
Vol 38 No 23 |
- SIERRA LEONE
The Freetown junta starts playing for time and recruits more fighters
The much-trumpeted Conakry peace accord of 23 October is already falling apart at the seams. Under the accord, Major Johnny Paul Koroma's Armed Forces Revolutionary Council undertook to...
After speculation about his health and whether he was even in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari gave a belated televised address on 29 March announcing a lockdown of...
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Vol 38 No 2 |
- NIGERIA
- FRANCE
General Sani Abacha's 31 December announcement that by stepping up French teaching, Nigeria will in 'a very short time' become bilingual is a shrewd diplomatic move, however unrealistic...
Private letters to President Jonathan from General Obasanjo and Bank Governor Sanusi warn of deepening financial and political threats
The leaking this week of two damning letters to President Goodluck Jonathan was surely no coincidence and fires a powerful broadside against his government and his plans to...