Political Risk To The Fore: Nigeria And Beyond
BMI’s Africa team cautions that political risk in Sub-Saharan Africa may be on the rise as a full-blown leadership crisis continues to escalate in Nigeria. Alan Cameron and Lisa Lewin provide some insight into an increasingly tense political situation, sharing their views on potential outcomes from the ongoing crisis. The next couple of weeks and months could be critical to a peaceful resolution of the constitutional standoff.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:02 pm UTC
Well I guess I’m happy it took me 5 days to get to this. I’m sure you’ve seen President Yar’Adua is handing in a letter about his “medical vacation.” Is that the technical legal wording called for by the Constitution? No article I’ve read analyzes the semantics.
February 10th, 2010 at 6:04 pm UTC
Brian, you are right: there is no reference to ‘medical vacation’ anywhere in the Nigerian constitution; the term seems to have been invented on this occasion by (Senate President) David Mark. The relevant section of the constitution, 145, refers to ‘a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office’. To be fair though, the constitution never envisaged a situation like the one now unfolding, so Mark’s locution may well be appropriate.