Nigerian Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed the cabinet

By African Bulletin on March 18, 2010

Five weeks after assuming executive powers in Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria’s acting president has discharged the entire cabinet.
Goodluck Jonathan, the vice-president, took over as the acting president since Umaru Yar’Adua, the country’s president, was away for months in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.
Jonathan has not given any reason for the move – which is glowing tension in the country and leading many to question his motive to seize power from the ailing president.
The measure was designed to reposition and strengthen the administration for enhanced effectiveness in service delivery; some sources closed to Jonathan reported.

At the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday the 17th March, Jonathan thanked the outgoing ministers for their services to the nation since the inception of the present administration, wishing them well in their future endeavors. The source has earlier told Jonathan is set to announce a minor cabinet reshuffle, noting that some ministers might be out of job after Wednesday’s meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation.
The Nigerian National Assembly on Feb. 9 empowered Vice President Jonathan to take over for ill President Umaru Yar’Adua.
The decision of the House of Representatives came after the Senate endorsed a motion to empower Jonathan as acting president in the absence of Yar ‘Adua.
The acting president has been under pressure to dismiss ministers who are not loyal to his administration as acting president.
On Feb. 10, he ordered the replacement of the country’s former Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa after presiding over the council meeting. Jonathan also on March 8 appointed Aliyu Gusau as a new security adviser.
Retired Lt.-Gen. Gusau took the position from Sarki Mukhtar. The new national security adviser held the same position for former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The following day Jonathan made a formal request to the Senate to appoint five new special advisers a day after he appointed a new National Security Adviser.
In a letter to the Senate, the acting president said the appointments are to compliment the exigencies of his new office and the jobs that it brought forward.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, was without President Yar’Adua for 93 days due to illness and this has raised serious anxieties locally and internationally about the state of Nigeria’s progress.

The president returned to the country on Feb. 24, 93 days after his departure to Saudi Arabia to attend to his failing health.
The absence of the ailing Nigerian leader is said to be creating a confidence crisis in the economy, as prospective investors are not willing to take on the additional risk of not knowing what will become of their investments thereafter.
Yar’ Adua left the country on Nov. 23 last year to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in search of a solution to his intractable medical condition.
Three days after his departure, it was announced that Yar’Adua was suffering from acute pericarditis, a condition characterized by the inflammation of the coverings of the heart.
There were concerns that matters requiring urgent attention of the president could suffer in his absence.
The concerns were intensified by an acute lack of information on his health and his failure to formally handover to Vice President Jonathan, as prescribed by the constitution. Worried by the lack of information on the president and the uncertainty about his health and date of return, many prominent Nigerians called for his resignation.