Washington — This week, acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet, further securing his tenuous hold on the country's top post amidst rising unrest in the Niger Delta and flaring religious tensions in the central region of the country.
On Wednesday, Goodluck dismissed all of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua's ministers, effectively allowing the acting president to appoint ministers of his choosing.
Yar'Adua, who has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for three months, returned to Nigeria on Feb. 24 amidst a heavy military presence at the airport, but hasn't been seen since.
"[Jonathan] did not give us any reason for the dissolution of the cabinet," said Dora Akunyili, the information minister, in a short statement released on Wednesday.
On Feb. 10, Nigeria's National Assembly voted to make Goodluck the acting president. Since then, Goodluck's aggressive power consolidation has furthered the hopes of many Nigerians hopes that reform is imminent.
"[Jonathan's dissolution of the cabinet] is a signal for many that Goodluck Jonathan is perhaps about to put in place his own men, his own women, his own team," said Al Jazeera's Nigeria correspondent, Yvonne Ndege, on Thursday.
"It was felt by many Nigerians that the cabinet was basically packed to the rafters with Yar'Adua loyalists who weren't doing the job they were supposed to be doing, or rather doing a good enough job," said Ndege.
Questions still remain over who will take on the post of vice president, as well as who will gain the support of the military. With elections due in less than one year, the clock is ticking for Goodluck Jonathan to present a viable path forward.
The military, which holds considerable sway in Nigerian politics, appears to be at odds about the current leadership crisis. John Campbell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria between 2004 and 2007, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Huffington Post that "the Nigerian military appears as splintered as the rest of the federal government."
Campbell went on to surmise that some elements within the army are staying loyal to Yar'Adua, as neither Jonathan nor the chief of defense staff - the most senior officer in the military - were notified about Yar'Adua's return.
A large number of military personnel greeted Yar'Adua's plane and escorted his ambulance to the presidential palace upon his return from Saudi Arabia.
It is not clear who wields power in the country at this point, or if Yar'Adua's absence becomes permanent, who will take over.
A new vice president must be approved by majority vote in both houses of the National Assembly and with the absence of a potential candidate who commands enough support in both houses, many are unsure of how to proceed.
The accession of Jonathan - who is Christian - also threatens to derail an informal power-sharing arrangement, in effect since 1999, which rests upon a rotation of the presidency every two terms between the largely Muslim north and the mostly Christian south.
According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), since 1999, approximately 13,500 people have died in religious violence that has persisted throughout Plateau State, a region located in the centre of the country, which separates the Muslim north from the Christian south.
Goodluck Jonathan is of the Ijaw, an ethnic group indigenous to the Delta region. Many hope he will take a more pro-active stance between multinational oil corporations, the Nigerian state and the people who live there.
Last week, HRW called on acting President Jonathan to investigate the most recent massacre in Plateau State, around the city of Jos, where over 300 people including women and children were killed.
Spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Robin Waudo, told the BBC, "It seems like these are reprisal attacks from what happened a few weeks ago," referring to an attack on a Muslim village in January that claimed almost 200 lives.
Nigeria's southern Delta region also remains in a state of upheaval.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has recently called off a ceasefire and announced an expansion of their targets to include oil companies, such as Total, who were previously left untouched by the MEND.
Washington's interest in Nigeria has grown as its importance as a source of imported oil has increased in recent years.
The Niger Delta is an impoverished, polluted area that sits on substantial petroleum deposits. It has become one of the world's starkest and most disturbing examples of the "resource curse" - rampant corruption, human rights abuses and poor development indicators that often plague resource-rich countries - according to a recent Amnesty International report.
Last week, a coalition of MEND leaders rejected a long-stalled amnesty deal offered by the government. The bombing of a conference, which was convened to discuss the initiative, followed MENDs refusal of the governments deal.
The Delta's inhabitants have been campaigning for control of their natural resources for years. After the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a prominent activist and proponent of non-violence, militant groups such as MEND took centre-stage, employing guerrilla tactics to achieve their aims.
In the last decade, Nigeria has asserted itself as a counterweight on the continent to South Africa's economic and cultural hegemony in sub-Saharan Africa. However, corruption has pervaded government since the 1970's, when oil production was nationalised under a military government - its profits carving out an elite ruling class.
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A letter to the people of Delta State,Nigeria
Why Ibos cannot be entrusted with our Strategic Information Systems Resources.
Dear Governor Uduaghan,
Please be informed that you committed digital genocide when you signed an agreement with Ibos to implement our Information Systems Project, bogusly, known as "Digitization". We, certainly, need a technical solution, not a political decision.
When I wrote to endorse "digitization" in Delta State, I was thinking of Standard Information Systems Acquisition procedures.
The Project Team and Composition
Before a project like this takes off, we have to have a project team of experienced specialists to be headed by a project manager,who will invite vendors to bid on the project .
Based on which vendor provides the most cost-effective solutions, then the project team makes the decision to choose the best vendor based on some important criteria:
* cost/benefit analysis * duration:the project life cycle must be specified in writing * documentation(user docs,systems docs,etc) * a solid contract that spells out what Delta State is getting * training:extent,scope,methodologies,etc * technical support * our privacy/security issues * ethics/code of conduct * copyright issues * prior experience in similar projects (samples,references,recommendations) * the relevance of the applications (Windows) to the project at hand. * Our project team must be made to understand every thing the vendor is doing with our lives with his bag of tricks.
Questions:
* Was there a document itemizing what we are getting? * Will the Ibos supply technical documents: systems,project,codes,etc * Did the State Government obtain references about this Vendor for prior satisfactory work done by these Ibos? * Did Delta State have a project team to discuss with these " Ibo experts"? * And if so, did Delta State have a project manager to interact with the Ibos? * If so, what are the backgrounds of our project team members,respectively? * .Why is the Ibo man in a hurry to experiment with our State while the South-East burns every day? * Must we bring the mayhems in Anambra,Ebonyi and Abia to our, otherwise, peaceful Delta State? * Why have Ibos not digitized those three states that urgently need digital surgery? * The week you allowed Phillip Emeaguili to address Deltans in New York, the National Daily claimed him as one of the noble citizens of Anambra State together with Dora Akinluyi,Achebe and others. * Why and how should Phillip Emeaguili belong to both Anambra and Delta States at once? * Have you seen Phillip Emeaguili's web site? If not ask him to show it to you.Also, check out for his place of birth and his certificate for his degree and verify every thing he claims to have done. * Why must Ibos comit us to Microsoft Software which had been too expensive and increasingly weak and insecure on the Internet.? * I used Windows for 12 years before I dumped it 7 years ago for Linux. Since then, I have never been happier because I have never bought any software . * Where were you, governor, when Ibos provoked fighting between Ijaws,Urhobos, and Itsekiris. It took the Ibori Administration some good skills to put an end to it after a long time. At the time,Ibos every where rejoiced at the mayhems they helped to instigate in Warri?
Obviously Governor, you did not grow up in the Delta because if you did, you would not have committed the blunder you made at the expense of every Deltan.
Historical antecedents
Honestly, the non Ibo-speaking people of Delta State must wake up and resist the hegemonic tedencies of Ibos because they have never meant us good in Niger Delta. Before the Niger Delta States were created, Ibos under Zik and Co dominated most of what is now called Niger Delta.
During the war,these were the first regions to be conquered by Biafrans. I honestly do not believe that the States of Rivers, Akwa Ibom,Cross Rivers and Bayelsa will allow Ibos to control their strategic and priviledged information resources because of their experience with their Ibo occupiers from the 1950's till the time they were liberated from Ibo occupation.
The Technologies
Understandably,Ibos had had some type of quid pro quo arrangement with Microsoft to impose the Windows platform on Nigeria.
If so, this will pose serious technological problems down the road because Microsoft Software has to run only Microsoft and such services that come with it, will also be prohibitively too expensive for most Nigerians.
As of today, almost every third world country is running or preparing to go OPEN SOURCE which is free and superior in Networking and Security to any thing from Microsoft:
Some of these countries that dumped Windows for Linux include: Brazil,China,Germany,Ghana,South Africa,Tanzania,Tunisia,Angola, Mexico, Russia,Japan,India,UK and much more.
I.T Giants that dumped Windows for Linux:
* IBM * DELL * Yahoo * Google * ,Sun Microsystems, * Apple and others * Oracle
Problems with Windows
* Prone to attacks from Viruses,Spammers,Hackers and Crackers. * It offers very little security. It has not been a secure operating system(A cop for the Computer). * New Versions every two years and each time consumers have to dole out money to Microsoft. * It is expensive. So are applications built on it. * It is patched often for bugs. * It is proprietory and source code is hidden by Microsoft, making it hard to truly master it. * It would be unaffordable to 95% of Nigerians. * It guzzles one's wallet.
Main Advantage
* It is easy to use.
With open source Linux,we can become software independent in 5 years. We can turn our rural areas into shopping malls and institutions all for free. With Windows,you would be talking of millions of dollars.
So when Ibos awarded you a prize, Governor, for being best performing Governor, they were right because you have sold Delta State to the entire Ibo tribe for a bribe.
Specifics
* The project is flawed if Ibos are coming to dominate citizens of Delta State because of their services since Ibos know very little about Information systems. * The project is flawed if Ibos inject their notorious brand of trabalism and arogance in choosing who works on the project. * The project is flawed if Ibos hide the details of the project from Delta State employees for any reason. * And Ibos cannot behave as occupiers because there is nothing they are going do that other people cannot improve upon. * Who ever works on the Project must submit to the Project Team Manager appointed by the state.This project manager,must as of necessity, come from Delta proper. This should be the best candidate among either Isoko,Urhobo,Ijaw or Istekiri. This is the only way you are going to protect our security, privacy,copyrights and priviledged information in Delta State. * The project is flawed because there was no public bidding to select the best vendor for the project.This is not in the best interest of Delta State as a whole. * The project is flawed if Ibos from the South East are given preference over the citizens of Delta State that are better qualified in I.T. * The project is flawed because the modus operandi used by the Governor in selecting Ibos for the project does not serve the best interest of the majority of the people of Delta State. * This project as construed and constituted would expose very vital and privileged information about Deltans to Anioma and the entire South East. * And nothing prevents the South Easterners from killing or kidnapping those they know so much about as they have been doing to themselves in Abia,Ebonyi, Anambra. * Finally, the project is flawed if Ibos have not given Delta State a written guarantee of reasonable satisfaction resulting from their work.
Governor, for now,we'll be monitoring this project in Delta State for a while. Because Urhobos form the majority group, any thing that affects us will be resisted in a United States Superior Court.
May God Save Delta State from Ibo incursion.
Thanks, Dr. Gregory I. Umukoro,CCP Chairman,International Polytechnic Institute, Los Angeles,California,U.S.A
Note: The author is a certified Information Systems Specialist,World-class Mathematician and Internet Guru.