Nigeria's Cabinet Says President is Fit to Rule
VOA News 27 January 2010
Nigeria's Cabinet has ruled that ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua is fit to remain in office in spite of his two-month absence from the country.
Meanwhile, the country's Senate has voted to urge the president to formally notify the National Assembly of what it called his "medical vacation."
Both decisions occurred Wednesday as government officials debated whether President Yar'Adua was capable of performing his duties. He left Nigeria in late November and traveled to Saudi Arabia for treatment of a heart condition. The president also suffers from a chronic kidney ailment.
Wednesday's Cabinet decision comes less than a week after the high court ordered the Cabinet to decide within 14 days if Mr. Yar'Adua was still fit for office.
The court's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit that accused the president of violating the constitution by not formally transferring power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.
Under Nigeria's constitution, the federal Cabinet can declare the president incapacitated, setting the stage for his removal.
The Senate had spent the past two days debating whether to call for the president to formally transfer power to the vice president. Reuters news says a constitutional provision states the vice president takes over as acting president whenever the president submits a written declaration stating he is unable to perform his duties.
President Yar'Adua's absence has raised fears of a power vacuum as the country faces major challenges.
The country has been dealing with recent violence between the mostly-Muslim north and Christian south. There are also concerns about violence because of the stalled peace talks between the government and rebels in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
