NIGERIA/FILE: Year end brings no closure to political crisis as ailing president fails to transfer powers to his deputy

Record ID: 234666

  • Title: NIGERIA/FILE: Year end brings no closure to political crisis as ailing president fails to transfer powers to his deputy
  • Date: 1st January 2010
  • Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS IN THE CITY OF ABUJA
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1REL42B396BB55HB1KEZ7FYP
  • Story Text: Africans across the continent may be looking to end 2009 on a positive note but for Nigerians, 2010 is unlikely to bring to a close an ongoing crisis that threatens the country with political paralysis into next year.
    President Umaru Yar'Adua has been absent from Africa's most populous nation for more than a month, receiving treatment for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia but there have been no official updates on his health for weeks.
    Kayode Akindele, a director of Greengate Strategic Partners, a financial advisory firm based in Lagos warned of the pending crisis due the prolonged absence of the president form office.
    "At the moment no one is quite sure who is running the country. Because we have one vice president but we have no president at the moment because the vice president has not been made acting president yet, and because of the way our system is run, the president is key. So it has slowed down decision making. For example the supplementary budget has been sitting on the presidential desk for nearly thirty days waiting for president to sign, and that has slowed down that process. Supplementary budget is very important for the amnesty as well as for power sector. And the you see things like people asking who is going to swear in the chief justice, there is uncertainty in the air, and one is really going to make decisions because it is a serious political risk, because if not sorted out, investors both foreign and domestic will have to ask themselves why is there uncertainty in Nigeria. That uncertainty breeds people to be more cautious and leads to slowing done the economy," said Akindele.
    Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has been presiding over cabinet meetings but executive powers have not officially been transferred to him, leading to questions over the legality of decisions made by the government in Yar'Adua's absence.
    The government and presidency officials have said state business is continuing as normal and that Yar'Adua is being consulted on issues needing his attention, such as a supplementary budget which they said this week was taken to him to sign on his sickbed.
    But analysts say government business is slowing. Two of Nigeria's top oil partners, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, have been in renewal negotiations covering expired licences in Africa's biggest energy supplier and neither they nor the government have yet announced a resolution.
    "He has pushed a lot of these policies himself, for example the amnesty offer, is really a drive by President Yar'Adua to solve the issue and he took a personal interest in it, inviting all the militant leaders and held one to one discussions with them, so the militant leaders see they have a rapport with him, and they see him as key to pushing it through, so in his absence there is uncertainty whether the amnesty will be followed through with the same vigour as it ws when he was there. Then things like financial reforms which the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor has pushed through, there is a lot of opposition to it and without strong presidential support so that we can make sure that the machinery of government is behind the CBN governor, there could be a slow down on reform process, or we can just see them fizzle out, which people do not want to happen. So, he is key in a sense, because a lot of policies come from the president and if the president is away, there is doubt whether the policies will be continued," said Akindele.
    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella body of all lawyers in the country, has launched legal action against the Attorney-General, asking a top court to declare that Yar'Adua has violated the constitution by omitting to transfer powers.
    There is still no confirmation on when Yar'Adua will return to Nigeria.
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