I like the hat(s).
Posted on 05/09/2010 5:20:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nigeria swore in its new president, a Christian, this week after months of leadership confusion while its elected president was receiving medical treatment.
Goodluck Jonathan, who has been Nigeria’s acting president since February, officially became president of Nigeria on Thursday. His Muslim predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died on Wednesday despite extensive treatment, including a medical stay in Saudi Arabia.
The peaceful power shift provides stability to the oil-rich country, avoiding Nigeria’s history of military coups whenever there was a leadership vacuum.
It is unclear at the moment if Jonathan will run for the office of president during the next election.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is about evenly split between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. There is an agreement that the office of president would be alternated between Christians and Muslims.
While the presidency problem is, for now, settled, Nigeria is facing the problem of increased sectarian violence.
Just last month, Islamic extremists allegedly kidnapped and killed Pastor Ishaku Kadah of the Church of Christ in Nigeria and his wife.
In March, ethnic Fulani Muslims attacked predominantly Christian villages in the central Jos area where somewhere between 100 to 500 people were killed, depending on reports. The attack occurred at night and many of the victims were defenseless women and children.
Then acting president Goodluck Jonathan ordered security forces in Plateau State and neighboring states to be on high alert to keep the violence from spreading.
The attack had come just months after a large-scale clash around the Jos area. Nearly 500 people were killed in January. The Plateau state police said the violence was sparked by an unprovoked attack on worshipers at a local church.
Jos has a well-known history of conflict between the Muslim and Christian communities. The central city lies between Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.
Beyond religious differences, many sectarian conflicts are also sparked by poverty and competition over access to resources.
Goodluck, Jonathan...
Well, that`s one way to do it!
I like the hat(s).
Knew a chap from Jos when I was teaching in Nigeria back in the 80's. A fellow teacher. A nominal Muslim, but all in all, a pretty reasonable fellow. We were even known to go to the pub for a beer every now and again. Often wonder what happened to him.
As reasonable as he might have been 25 years ago he's probably busy beheading Christians these days.
Onward Christian soldier!
Good guys wear black.
Prayers for President Jonathan to be a beacon of light for all, and protector of the innocent in Nigeria.
He'll need it.
Goodluck Johnson is the new President of Nigeria. On 13 January 2010, a federal court handed him the power to carry out state affairs while President Umaru Yar’Adua received medical treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital. A motion from the Nigerian Senate on 9 February 2010 confirmed these powers to act as President. On 24 February 2010 Yar’Adua returned to Nigeria, but Jonathan continued as acting president. Upon Yar’Adua’s death on 5 May 2010, Jonathan succeeded to the Presidency, taking the oath of office on 6 May 2010.
Jonathan was sworn in as Yar’Adua’s replacement on 6 May 2010, becoming Nigeria's 14th Head of State. He will serve as President until the next election. Upon taking office, Jonathan cited anti-corruption, power and electoral reform as likely focuses of his administration. He stated that he came to office under “very sad and unusual circumstances.”
Nigeria, the world's eight-largest oil exporter and Africa's most populous nation with 150-million people, is almost equally divided between northern Muslims and southern Christians. Jonathan's candidacy would shatter an unwritten deal in the PDP that rotates the presidency for eight years to a leader from the mainly Christian south and eight years to someone from the mainly Muslim north. The rotation is seen as vital to Nigeria's political stability.
Goodluck Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
The party has a neoliberal stance in its economic policies and maintains a conservative stance on certain social issues, such as same sex relations.
The PDP favors free-market policies which support economic liberalism, and limited government regulation. In 2003, President Olusegun Obasanjo and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala embarked on a radical economic reform program, which reduced government spending through conservative fiscal policies, and saw the deregulation and privatization of numerous industries in Nigerian services sector — notably the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) industry.
The PDP strives to maintain the status quo on oil revenue distribution. Though the PDP government setup the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to address the needs of the oil-producing Niger Delta states, it has rebuffed repeated efforts to revert back to the 50% to 50% federal-to-state government revenue allocation agreement established in 1966 during the First Republic.
The PDP is against same sex relations, and favors social conservatism on moral and religious grounds.
I'm liking this guy already. I hope he sticks his plans to shatter the “unbroken rule” and keep Christians in charge of Nigeria.
It seems in 21st century politics, some African countries have more reconginiably conservative parties (by American standards) than what's passes for “conservative” in Western Europe lately.
I find it ironic as an American of western European decent.
Good luck, Johnson!
That Nigerian President finally kicked huh?
I didn’t know Goodluck Johnson (and his party of which the dead Muslim President was also a member) is apparently so decent. Good to know.
When the story was first reported about the now dead President left the country I made note of Goodluck Johnson’s usual name.
UNusual name.
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