FT.com - article

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s acting president, has landed a significant blow in the struggle for control of the world’s 10th biggest oil exporter by sacking a security chief and reinstating a wily spymaster. Less than 48 hours after Sunday’s ethnic violence had claimed hundreds of lives in the central city of Jos, Mr Jonathan dismissed Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar, the national security adviser. No explanation was offered, nor was there any mention of the security forces’ failure to stem the cycle of bloodshed. Whatever the pretext, however, Mr Mukhtar was a key member of the inner circle around Umaru Yar’Adua, the president who has been incapacitated since November. One minister has denounced this group as a “cabal” bent on retaining control over Nigeria, despite the leadership crisis brought on by Mr Yar’Adua’s illness and his failure formally to hand over powers to his deputy. The struggle between allies of the two men, a president and an acting president who can each claim to hold executive power, is remarkable even by Nigeria’s standards. There are fears that the manoeuvring could overwhelm Mr Jonathan’s stated goal of delivering reform in the year remaining before the next election. “Here again we see that elite politics could trump any consideration of the national interest,” said Rolake Akinola, senior west Africa analyst at Control Risks, a security consultancy. The scenes of scorched corpses in Jos have reminded many of the failings of the Nigerian state. For every 100 of its 150m people, Nigeria produces only enough electricity to power one toaster. Most live in grim conditions while oil wealth is diverted to the patronage system that underpins the country’s politics. Mr Jonathan lacks a political base, having been catapulted from a deputy state governorship to the pinnacles of power in less than five years. He has tried to reinforce his position by choosing Mohammed Aliyu Gusau, a retired general, as the new national security adviser. Gen Aliyu, who is thought to harbour presidential ambitions of his own, is one of the biggest hitters in the military class that has governed Nigeria directly or indirectly for much of its post-colonial history. He held the same critical position under Olusegun Obasanjo, the former military ruler and previous president. Mr Obasanjo anointed Mr Yar’Adua as his successor but subsequently broke with him. He is now regarded as Mr Jonathan’s most senior backer. Gen Aliyu also has connections to Ibrahim Babangida, another former military ruler described by one former minister as “the master manipulator”. Despite this line-up of allies, Mr Jonathan’s authority is far from assured. He has still not seen Mr Yar’Adua, who returned to Nigeria under cover of night a fortnight ago, after three months in a Saudi Arabian hospital. Access to Mr Yar’Adua is controlled by his wife, Turai, often portrayed as ruthlessly ambitious.