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.