Back To Nigeria For A Moment: President Goodluck Jonathan Wins Party Vote To Run In April.
Goodluck Jonathan wins vote to run in Nigeria's April election
Christian selected as candidate by the People's Democratic party, but defeated Muslim opponent warns of anarchy
President Goodluck Jonathan, who became leader of Nigeria only after the death of its elected president, today won the endorsement of the country's ruling party, making him the overwhelming favourite to win April's presidential election.
Jonathan cast himself as the leader able to change Africa's most populous nation, which has vast oil reserves but has been beset by problems under a series of military dictatorships.
Voters at the primary convention in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, gave Jonathan two-thirds of the vote, beating his main challenger, the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, in an election that highlighted the country's religious and ethnic fault lines.
As the candidate of the People's Democratic party, Jonathan can expect its political connections, money and muscle to propel him to victory. Since the handover in 1999 from military rule to a civilian government, the party has dominated politics in the west African nation.
"We have a chance to transform ourselves to be a great nation in the years ahead," Jonathan told delegates.
The president, dressed in the traditional black kaftan and bowler hat of his Niger Delta home, said his administration planned to privatise the nation's state-run power company.
Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the leadership post had been traded between a candidate from the predominantly Muslim north and one from the mainly Christian south.
Jonathan, a Christian from the south, became president last May after the death of Nigeria's elected leader, Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim who had only served one term.
Abubakar said not having a northerner as candidate would risk lawlessness and anarchy.
Delegates began voting after the two men delivered speeches, dropping ballots into glass ballot boxes as observers from Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission looked on.
The small-scale primary election offered warnings of what might come in the April general election. Some complained that serial numbers on the voting papers allowed their votes to be tracked. The Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido, a prominent party member, got into a brief scuffle with one election official.
International observers said the 2007 election that brought to power the late Yar'Adua and Jonathan was rigged, even though it represented the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the nation's history.
Western nations hope Nigeria's coming election remains calm. The country is a leading supplier of easily refined crude oil to the US. Violence in the country has caused global oil prices to spike in the past.
The primary convention also showed how uneasy the government remains after recent bombings targeting Abuja. Outside Eagle Square, the site of the convention, federal ministries sat empty all day as security forces locked down roads up to one mile (2km) from the outdoor parade ground.
Everyone entering the square faced at least four security screenings, as police marksmen occupied towers and flew overhead in a helicopter.
Christian selected as candidate by the People's Democratic party, but defeated Muslim opponent warns of anarchy
President Goodluck Jonathan, who became leader of Nigeria only after the death of its elected president, today won the endorsement of the country's ruling party, making him the overwhelming favourite to win April's presidential election.
Jonathan cast himself as the leader able to change Africa's most populous nation, which has vast oil reserves but has been beset by problems under a series of military dictatorships.
Voters at the primary convention in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, gave Jonathan two-thirds of the vote, beating his main challenger, the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, in an election that highlighted the country's religious and ethnic fault lines.
As the candidate of the People's Democratic party, Jonathan can expect its political connections, money and muscle to propel him to victory. Since the handover in 1999 from military rule to a civilian government, the party has dominated politics in the west African nation.
"We have a chance to transform ourselves to be a great nation in the years ahead," Jonathan told delegates.
The president, dressed in the traditional black kaftan and bowler hat of his Niger Delta home, said his administration planned to privatise the nation's state-run power company.
Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the leadership post had been traded between a candidate from the predominantly Muslim north and one from the mainly Christian south.
Jonathan, a Christian from the south, became president last May after the death of Nigeria's elected leader, Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim who had only served one term.
Abubakar said not having a northerner as candidate would risk lawlessness and anarchy.
Delegates began voting after the two men delivered speeches, dropping ballots into glass ballot boxes as observers from Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission looked on.
The small-scale primary election offered warnings of what might come in the April general election. Some complained that serial numbers on the voting papers allowed their votes to be tracked. The Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido, a prominent party member, got into a brief scuffle with one election official.
International observers said the 2007 election that brought to power the late Yar'Adua and Jonathan was rigged, even though it represented the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the nation's history.
Western nations hope Nigeria's coming election remains calm. The country is a leading supplier of easily refined crude oil to the US. Violence in the country has caused global oil prices to spike in the past.
The primary convention also showed how uneasy the government remains after recent bombings targeting Abuja. Outside Eagle Square, the site of the convention, federal ministries sat empty all day as security forces locked down roads up to one mile (2km) from the outdoor parade ground.
Everyone entering the square faced at least four security screenings, as police marksmen occupied towers and flew overhead in a helicopter.
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 10:13 AM
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