ASSESSMENTS

Nigeria: An Ailing President and the Problem of Succession

Jan 6, 2010 | 18:19 GMT

Nigerian President Umaru Yaradua (L) with Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Nov. 19, 2009

WOLE EMMANUEL/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Nigeria's president has been in Saudi Arabia for six weeks receiving medical treatment, but has refused to grant his vice president the temporary powers of the presidency. This issue has brought into the open a clash between two agreements that dictate presidential succession in Nigeria: an unwritten 1999 agreement to rotate power between north and south against the protocol outlined in the country's constitution.

Nigerian President Umaru Yaradua's hospitalization in Saudi Arabia has the potential to create a political crisis. (With STRATFOR maps)...

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