Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine, and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido
Abuja (AFP) – Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan lost his majority in parliament on Wednesday after 37 lawmakers bolted his party for a new opposition coalition, the latest political blow to hit the embattled leader.
In a letter presented to the speaker of the lower house, the lawmakers elected under Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared that they had joined the All Progressives Congress, stripping the PDP of its majority in 360-seat chamber.
They listed “divisions in the political party (PDP) that sponsored our election” as the reason for the move.
The PDP had controlled the lower house in Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer since the end of military rule in 1999, but was left with just 171 lawmakers after Wednesday’s announcement.
Jonathan has been haemorrhaging support in recent weeks, including the defection of five powerful state governors to the APC last month.
Publicly, the president’s rivals have said his political troubles are tied to poor job performance, including galloping corruption and a failure to improve woeful electricity supply.
But analysts argue the real divisions are linked to Nigeria’s 2015 polls.
Jonathan has so far refused to declare his plans but is widely expected to seek re-election, even as he has faced mounting calls to stand aside.
He has been accused of breaking an unwritten rule in the PDP which calls for the presidency to rotate between Christians from the south, like Jonathan, and Muslims from the north.
Jonathan, an ex-vice president, took the top job in 2010 after the sudden death of his predecessor Umar Musa Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim who served less than three years.
The practical impacts of the power shift in the house were not immediately clear as Nigeria has not had a divided federal government in decades.
Lagos State University professor Dapo Thomas said the developments will hurt the PDPs image as Nigeria’s natural ruling party.
“The defection will shake the root and foundation of the PDP,” the political science lecturer said.
Laja Oduka, a political scientist at the University of Lagos, told AFP that the opposition will use the lower house “to torment the PDP”, including the possibility of moving forward on impeachment hearings.
“We will certainly see a shift in the balance of power,” on the national stage he said.
While Jonathan’s allies still hold 74 seats of 109-member upper house, Thomas said a threat to the PDP majority there could force Jonathan to make major concessions.
In past statements, the PDP has branded supporters who defect as “agents of distraction” and cast doubt on the credibility of the APC.
Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has not had a democratic change in government, with power shifting from a ruling party to the opposition.
MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness: Forthcoming 2014 BOOK: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first person reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two global icons and
towering persons of African descent whose exemplary lives and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”
He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/
Long Live, CHINUA ACHEBE! The Eagle on the iroko.
FULL text of this tribute-commentary at USAfricaonline.com click link https://usafricaonline.com/2013/03/22/long-live-chinua-achebe-by-chido-nwangwu
ACHEBE Lives As an Immortal Writer In Our Hearts and Minds. By Chido Nwangwu. USAfrica, May 22, 2013: https://usafricaonline.com/2013/05/22/achebe-lives-as-an-immortal-writer-by-chido-nwangwu/
ThisDay Sunday May 26, 2013. http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/achebe-lives-as-an-immortal-writer-in-our-hearts-and-minds/148550/
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Eight lessons of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. https://usafricaonline.com/2009/11/01/chido-8lessons-rwanda-genocide/
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Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )
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Obama’s Africa agenda, our business and democracy. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com
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Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )
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‘POPE FRANCIS, champion for the poor and evangelistic dedication’ by Chido Nwangwu
