/ 5 February 2010

Nigerian minister calls for ill president to transfer powers

A Nigerian minister has called on ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua to transfer power, a senior official said on Thursday, in the first sign of a Cabinet split over his prolonged absence from the country.

Dora Akunyili, who as information minister doubles as the government’s spokesperson, called on her Cabinet colleagues to revoke a decision that said that Yar’Adua was healthy enough to rule.

Nigerian newspapers reported she circulated a memorandum with the request to her ministerial colleagues at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Akunyili was not available for comment early on Thursday, but a senior official who declined to be named told Agence France-Presse: “What is reported in the press is correct.”

The president has been receiving treatment for a serious heart condition in a Saudi Arabian hospital since flying out of Nigeria on November 23.

According to the reports, the memorandum asks the government to demand a letter from the president justifying his absence on medical grounds and allowing Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to act as “interim president”.

Jonathan has been filling in for Yar’Adua but does not possess full executive powers to act as head of state. — AFP