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ISSUES....
Inside, confidential and off the record
Yar’Adua's muslims
Turning to Nigeria, Islamic youths ram amuck last week in the northern city of Jos. Our readers will remember that it was in Jos in ’08 where Islamic youths went on a rampage, killing Christian Nigerians almost at will. They are
doing so again, killing at least two dozen Christian worshippers in a Catholic church this past weekend and wounding hundreds more. The church was set ablaze while parishioners were inside. According to reports, 5,000 people have been left homeless following the rampage.
The country is already being torn apart by the fact that the President… Mr. Yar’Adua… has been out of the country for nearly two months. He has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for an unspecified illness, and only last week finally agreed to speak to the people of Nigeria in an interview with the BBC from his hospital bed. There had been talk that the Congress was preparing to
demand that President Yar’Adua sign over his powers as the country’s chief executive to the Vice President, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, but the leadership in the Congress has been reticent to act. Deputy Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, said earlier this week that the thought of forcing the President to stand down based on poor health is immoral.
The Nigerian Constitution does allow for the handing over of power, temporarily, by the President to the Vice President. Section 145 of the Constitution saysWhenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such functions shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
The question is, will Mr. Yar’Adua sign and “transmit” such a letter. Apparently, unless the President does so of his own volition there is no other way for the Congress to force his hand. Into this vacuum of power comes the uprising in
the North amongst the Islamic radicals there. Mr. Yar’Adua, as a Muslim from the North was able, but dint of his own personality, to keep these problems
quieted. Now that he is not on the scene and cannot use his personal powers of persuasion the radical elements in northern Islam are on a rampage.- Dennis Gartman/ The Gartman Letter 01/20 / 2010
- For more on interesting comments, you can subscribe to The Gartman Letter by contacting Dennis Garthman: Phone-Fax:or email: dennis@thegartmanletter
ISSUES.... 01/20/2010
ISSUES.... Inside, confidential and off the record
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