ABUJA: Parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday to take over from the ill president of Nigeria. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed measures calling on Jonathan to act as president and commander in chief until President Umaru Yar’Adua returns from Saudi Arabia, where he has been receiving medical treatment for a heart condition since November.
Yar’Adua’s absence has caused a cease-fire with militants in the oil-rich delta to unravel and had left no one formally in charge of the nation of 150 million. The crisis in a powerful country with a long history of coups and military dictatorships has drawn international attention, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European leaders calling on the nation to follow its constitution.
Newspapers began worrying about possible coup scenarios as Yar’Adua’s absence grew longer. However, military leaders said several weeks ago they had no ambitions to take power and would respect the constitution.
It was unclear when Jonathan would be sworn in as president.
The National Assembly’s empowering of Jonathan may set the stage for new legal battles and power struggles. The motion would allow Yar’Adua to reassume the presidency if he returns to the country healthy enough to lead the nation.
Yar’Adua, who has been suffering from kidney ailments for long, left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23. He was admitted to a hospital the next day.
Since Yar’Adua left Nigeria, a major kidnapping and a pipeline attack have occurred in the Niger Delta. Religious violence between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria also left more than 300 dead and thousands displaced. And a young Nigerian attempted to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight bound for Detroit, sparking tighter security regulations for travelers from the West African nation.
While Nigerian law allows for a smooth transition of power from Yar’Adua to the vice president, the 58-year-old president left without following any of those procedures.
The federal government says Jonathan has been acting in Yar’Adua’s place without the constitutional procedures but protesters have taken to the streets, saying the country was essentially leaderless. Several former Nigerian leaders have urged Yar’Adua to step down if he is medically unfit to serve.
