Nigeria’s acting president has long to way go in convince masses he’ll make the country work

Nigeria’s new president yet to convince masses

LAGOS, Nigeria — Since becoming acting president, Goodluck Jonathan has removed a senior official and insisted on punctuality, but the country is waiting to see if he can tackle bigger issues like rampant corruption and bringing peace to troubled regions.

Parliament on Feb. 9 formally named the 52-year-old vice president and former governor as acting president, replacing — at least temporarily — President Umaru Yar’Adua who is hospitalized in Saudi Arabia with a serious heart condition. Without mounting a campaign or establishing a platform, Jonathan inherited an oil-rich, fragile democracy, leaving the nation of 150 million wondering what his leadership will bring.

Jonathan faces huge challenges. Little seems to work in the country unless hands are greased by bribes, with corruption pervading all levels of bureaucracy. Despite the oil wealth, most Nigerians live on less than $2 a day. The government electricity utility rarely provides reliable power. An exploding population, of which 44 percent is 14 or younger, strains what little services the government provides.

The acting president promised to confront all these problems and more in an address to Nigerians, stirring enthusiasm among the media, politicians and ordinary Nigerians for the country to come together. But questions are now emerging about how he’ll address the problems, with his only televised speech offering only vague promises that echoed Yar’Adua’s.

Perhaps foremost, there is hope Jonathan will bring peace to the oil-rich Niger Delta, where the acting president hails from and which provides nearly all funding for government operations.

Attacks by militants in the delta last year crippled oil production, making Nigeria drop from Africa’s top oil producer to No. 2, behind Angola. Militants have vowed to resume attacks after a cease-fire agreement broke down in Yar’Adua’s absence. The fighters complained that benefits Yar’Adua had promised, including infrastructure development in the delta and payments to demobilized members, haven’t materialized.

“As a southerner from the Delta, Jonathan has been an effective interlocutor in peace efforts in the area,” said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, a New York-based analyst with the consulting firm Eurasia Group. “His appointment will support the Niger Delta peace process and recent positive trends there.”

Spio-Garbrah said the amnesty program has improved security, boosting oil production.

But one militant group has already dismissed the idea that Jonathan’s background would make him a better negotiator. And John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said Jonathan has done little if anything to assure the amnesty negotiated by Yar’Adua was cemented.

“It’s remarkable how little has been done there — virtually no post amnesty follow-up,” said Campbell, who now is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Nigerians are also looking for him to soothe friction between Muslims and Christians. Thousands have died over in central and north Nigeria in the last decade from religious violence often sparked by political unrest. Even before being named acting president, Jonathan sent in troops to quell sectarian violence in the central city of Jos that killed more than 300 people.

Jonathan knows that he is only the “acting” president and that if he institutes policies radically different from what Yar’Adua would want, they could be undone if the president returns. Jonathan said he had spoken with Yar’Adua by telephone before becoming acting president, but offered no details about the conversation. But a quick return seems unlikely for Yar’Adua. Officials watching the ailing leader last week turned away Nigerian lawmakers who came to Saudi Arabia to see him.

Meanwhile, Jonathan has begun to assume some trappings of presidential power. During his first meeting with the Cabinet, which remains stacked with Yar’Adua appointees, Jonathan took Yar’Adua’s seat at the table. When several ministers arrived late, he had them locked out, according to local media reports.

Jonathan quickly removed the attorney general who had opposed Jonathan’s appointment as acting president by arguing feverishly that Yar’Adua had the power to rule from a hospital bed. But instead of outright firing Michael Aondoakaa, Jonathan placed him as minister of special duties.

Jonathan’s hesitance to sack Aondoakaa likely comes from the fact he remains only a custodian of the nation and Yar’Adua still could return, Campbell said. Also, there are rumblings lawmakers may push up a presidential election scheduled for 2011.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a military dictator and Nigeria’s first civilian leader who still receives roaring applause, told reporters Saturday that he would offer advice to Jonathan. Obasanjo, who created the Yar’Adua-Jonathan ticket and still wields great power in the country, declined to say whether he’d support an early election.

“I will give all pieces of advice personally and privately,” Obasanjo said.

Jonathan also has pushed against Nigeria’s culture of worshipping those in power in his brief time as acting president. Jonathan asked well-wishers to stay away from the presidential mansion, saying he had too much work to do to put Nigeria on the right course — following a precedent set by Yar’Adua after his 2007 election.

Many believe he has a long way to go to earn praise.

“There is nothing worth congratulating anyone for at the moment,” read a recent editorial in NEXT, a Nigerian newspaper. “We ask all persons intending to extend their congratulations to the acting president to please save such messages until a time when it is clear to all and sundry that he deserves it.”