Good Choices by Goodluck Jonathan

According to a BBC News post from Wednesday, March 24th, 2010, titled "Goodluck Jonathan's cabinet choices surprises Nigeria" Acting president Jonathan has offered several choices to the Senate for approval to ministerial positions, including a banker from the investment firm Goldman Sachs. This is one week after he fired all of President Yar'Adua's Cabinet, of which only 9 have made it back on to his list of nominees. This list also includes a nephew of Mr. Yar'Adua, which might be a conciliatory gesture to the President, or simply to groom him for higher office. This move has been seen by Analysts to be a message that Jonathan is in charge, and that he wants to run for president at some point in the future. However, The PDP continues on it's stance that it is only proper that the North have their full 8 years.

This sort of situation brings us to the concepts of Sovereignty. With Jonathan in power, he has the right to fire whoever he wants, but the messages that he sends with such dismissals may take him head to head with the PDP, and as such, he might split off from the Party.

Photo from onlinenigeria

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The Power in Nigeria Remains Shifting.

According to the BBC article "Nigeria ruling party wants northerner for 2011 poll" posted March 3rd, 2010, The People's Democratic Party has stated that the future candidate from the party for the year 2011 will come from the North, and that this period of time of power by acting president Goodluck Jonathan will not have an effect on the normal power sharing constructs put in place by the party. The PDP is the current ruling party, and has managed to stay there with a centrist position that balances the concerns of the Muslim north and the Christian south. according to the PDP's Chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, since the South had the power for 8 years, from 1999 to 2007, the north shall have the power for the same amount of time, no matter how well Goodluck Jonathan is doing. He clarified that this was only applying to the 2011 elections, and that Goodluck Jonathan is still the acting president, and President Umaru Yar'adua still has the presidency.

This sort of announcement is exactly the kind of thing that we look for in Comparative government, because it touches on so many different aspects of what we are learning, things like Sovereignty, Cleavages and Politics in general. From a sovereignty aspect, this brings up the question of who really has the power, the president, the acting president, or the party chairman. If goodluck jonathan is doing a good job, one that both the north and the south can agree upon, then why shouldn't he be allowed to run, at least within the party for the nomination. On Cleavage side, the political situation of Nigeria causes the need for some kind of power sharing deal that can appease both sides of the religious divide, and this switching of power is definitely one way to accomplish it. Finally, the politics of the situation come into play, with Chairman Ogbulafor playing it very cautiously about the way that the next candidate will be chosen, saying that he will only be from the North, not that he will be Muslim.
Picture Credit : Nigeria Planet
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