The Senate voted to authorize Goodluck Jonathan to take over as president and commander in chief while President Umaru Yar’Adua remains hospitalized in Saudi Arabia. A similar motion sat on Tuesday before the Nigerian House of Representatives. If the House passes the measure, Jonathan could be immediately sworn in as president.The motion would allow Yar’Adua to reassume the presidency if he returns to the country healthy enough to lead the nation of 150 million people. However, many have worried the president may be too seriously ill to serve again, throwing into question who will lead the ruling party in the 2011 presidential election.
Yar’Adua, who long has suffered from kidney ailments, traveled out of the country several times for what his advisers said were medical checkups before he left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23. He was admitted to a hospital the next day.
As questions mounted, his physician released a statement saying Yar’Adua had acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. Since Yar’Adua left Nigeria, a major kidnapping and a pipeline attack have occurred in the oil-rich Niger Delta despite an amnesty program for militants led by Yar’Adua. Religious violence between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria also left more than 300 dead and thousands displaced.
