Goodluck Jonathan dissolves Nigeria’s Cabinet
Nigeria's acting president Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the country's Cabinet yesterday, purging top officials loyal to the nation's ill president in his first major act since taking over the young democracy's highest office more than a month ago.
Information Minister Dora Akunyili announced the decision by Mr Jonathan at the same time that the state-run broadcaster broke the news to citizens long confused about who remained in charge of the oil-rich nation. Ms Akunyili said Mr Jonathan would issue a statement soon about who will now serve in the Cabinet.
“The acting president gives no reason for the dissolution,” Ms Akunyili said after a Cabinet meeting last night. “There is no vacuum in the government as permanent secretaries will take charge.”
The action came as attackers killed 12 people in a small Christian village in central Nigeria, a country of 150 million people evenly split between Christians and Muslims. Yesterday’s violence was the latest in a region where religious fighting already has killed hundreds of people this year — a major test for an acting president now flexing his political power.
The Cabinet had been stocked with loyalists of President Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim from the country's north. Some Cabinet members had begun to shift allegiances from Mr Yar'Adua to Mr Jonathan, a Christian from the country's south, as time passed. Ms Akunyili had previously circulated a memo to the Cabinet calling on it to install Mr Jonathan as acting president — providing a rare public voice for those uncomfortable with Mr Yar'Adua's long absence from the country.
The move is the first major step by Jonathan, a 52-year-old biologist from the Niger Delta who largely remained quiet as a constitutional crisis gripped the nation over Mr Yar'Adua's absence. Mr Yar'Adua left Nigeria in late November for medical treatment at a Saudi Arabian hospital for an inflammation of the sac surrounding his heart, described as a serious condition by his doctor.
The National Assembly empowered Jonathan to become acting president in a vote February 9. Two weeks later, Mr Yar'Adua, 58, returned to the country ago after spending 93 days in a Jeddah hospital for an acute heart ailment. Since then, he has not appeared in public and no official is known to have seen him.
Prominent Lagos-based human rights lawyer Femi Falana said that the dissolution of the 42-member cabinet was "long overdue."
"He does not want any distraction in governance and so he decided to dissolve the cabinet so that he can pick his own team," he said. "He can now sit down and set up a team that will run the country."
Earlier yesterday, Muslim herdsmen disguised as soldiers butchered and then set fire to around a dozen Christians close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre.
Most of the victims of the raid on Byei village in Plateau state were women and children, state radio reported.
Police spokesman Lerama Mohammed said the pre-dawn attack was believed to have been carried out by members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group which was behind last week's massacre in three Berom villages near Jos.