Britain backs Jonathan
By Uche Ofoma February 27, 2010
Britain’s top diplomat in Nigeria said yesterday that his country supported the work of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan after the sudden return of the oil-rich nation’s long absent and ailing president.
A statement issued by High Commissioner Bob Dewar also said it was important for Nigeria to offer a “clarification on leadership” after the surprise arrival of President Umaru Yar’Adua earlier this week. Though the National Assembly voted Jonathan into the presidency two weeks ago, Yar’Adua’s return threatens to draw the country into another constitutional crisis.
“It is important to avoid uncertainty at this time,” Dewar said. “It is also important at this time to avoid any political or constitutional confusion that could put at risk the integrity and transparency needed in the conduct of public affairs.”
The high commissioner added that the British government “will support the acting president and government” in taking on challenges facing the country.
Yar’Adua returned Wednesday to Nigeria under the cover of darkness at the nation’s capital airport, apparently leaving in an ambulance escorted by a heavily armed military guard. Yar’Adua left the country Nov. 23, 2009 and spent three months at a Jeddah hospital recuperating from what his physician described as acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart.
Yar’Adua left Nigeria without formally putting Jonathan in charge as required by the constitution, launching a political crisis in the young democracy. With no sign of Yar’Adua returning, lawmakers voted two weeks ago to install Jonathan, a Christian from the country’s south, to stand in for the president, a Muslim from the north.
Since his return, the public has not seen Yar’Adua or heard his voice, leading to more questions about his ability to lead. Turai Yar’Adua, the president’s wife, apparently has tight control over who actually sees the president, who has a long history of kidney problems and poor health.
European leaders and U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have paid increasing attention to the leadership vacuum in Nigeria, one of Africa’s top oil producers.
However, Dewar’s statement may carry special weight in Nigeria, a commonwealth nation that won its independence from Britain in 1960.
Many Nigerians still hold Britain in high regard and those with the means to travel abroad from a nation where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day often head to London for shopping sprees and banking.
via Nigeria Champion Newspaper Online – Britain backs Jonathan.
