Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan Fires Predecessor's Cabinet

Enlarge AP Photo/Sunday Aghaeze, File

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton talks with then Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in January 2009 in Abuja, Nigeria

AP Photo/Sunday Aghaeze, File

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton talks with then Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in January 2009 in Abuja, Nigeria

Exactly who's leading Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, has been murky ever since President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua spurred a crisis by leaving the country for medical care in Saudi Arabia last November without handing over the reins to his vice president.

Matters became somewhat less confused in early February when Nigeria's Senate decided Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should serve as acting president until Yar'Adua, who has since returned to Nigeria, was able to fully resume his role.

On Wednesday, Jonathan took a major step towards making the government his own, he jettisoned Yar'Ardua's cabinet.

NPR correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported for the newscast that the move was Jonathan's first major decision.

OFEIBEA: The purge of senior officials loyal to ailing Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, is the most decisive act to date by Goodluck Jonathan since he took power as acting president. Jonathan inherited Yar'Adua's outgoing government and appears to be asserting his authority.

But analysts warn that there may be a constitutional challenge to his decision.

For months Nigerians wondered who was running the country during the protracted absence of the president, prompting a constitutional crisis. Now they're waiting to see what reaction there might be to this audacious step.

Nigeria's caretaker leader gave no explanation and made no public statement about the appointment of a new cabinet. Top civil servants are to take charge of the ministries meanwhile.