Nigerians shaken by calls for ill president to resign
Things are starting to look a little shaky up in Nigeria after President Umaru Yar'Adua went off to Saudi Arabia to be treated for heart problems. The cat’s away and the mice are starting to play, with more than 50 Nigerian public figures now saying the president must resign because his ill health has impaired his judgement. A statement carried by newspapers to this effect is signed by senior political figures and democracy activists, but government ministers dismissed the statement, saying there was no basis for the president to leave office, and informed Nigerians that all organs of government are functioning and will continue to deliver. That really does sound shaky. The president is from the Muslim north of the vast, ethnically diverse and hugely populated country. An unwritten agreement among politicians has power rotated between the North and the South on an eight-yearly basis, because most of the oil wealth is in the south.Read more: BBC, Pana
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