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...
Now a man in a hurry, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has to stamp his authority on Abuja and quickly decide which ministers and officials can help him and...
After President Yar’Adua’s two-month health crisis in Saudi Arabia,
Vice-President Jonathan’s supporters urge him to seize the day
On 16 January, the Vice-President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, began to sound like a Nigerian President. His many supporters across the country say it's not before time: they are...
Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan is trying to build a broad consensus across political parties and ethnic regions, with advisors outside party and government circles who are mostly from Bayelsa....
Desperate to stop the crisis over President Yar’Adua’s illness from spinning out of control, senior politicians plot compromise deals
Politicians in Abuja currently have two main imperatives: to forestall a military coup and to prevent war restarting in the Niger Delta (AC Vol 50 No 25). They...
Nigeria’s military, though much diminished, still sees itself as the last truly national institution and the final custodian of the state. If the current crisis unravels, senior officers...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 12 |
- NIGERIA
- CHINA
Abuja wants to use Chinese export finance to build a spy network with
the controversial ZTE company – instead of a railway
Security experts reckon that cyber warfare and espionage will be this century’s new battlegrounds. With that in view, Beijing is now considering whether to allow the Nigerian government...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 12 |
- NIGERIA
- INDIA
Wherever China goes in Nigeria, India tends not to be too far behind. Chinese contractors may have landed all of the major railway deals in Nigeria (AAC Vol...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 9 |
- NIGERIA
- CHINA
- INDIA
China's state companies advance billion-dollar oil and banking deals while India's plans are now on hold
The Lagos State government, the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation
signed an US$8 billion deal this month for a 300,000 barrel-per-day
oil refinery and a...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 9 |
- NIGERIA
- CHINA
Plans to sell the state-owned Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel)
have floundered after China Unicom announced it would not be contributing
to the front-running New Generation Consortium comprised of China
Unicom Europe, the...