Nigeria's acting president dissolves Cabinet

Information Minister Dora Akunyili announced the decision by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan at the same time that the state-run broadcaster broke the news to citizens long confused about who remained in charge of the oil-rich nation. Akunyili said Jonathan would issue a statement soon about who will now serve in the Cabinet.

"The acting president gives no reason for the dissolution," Akunyili told reporters Wednesday night. "There is no vacuum in the government as permanent secretaries will take charge."

The action came as attackers killed 12 people in a small Christian village in central Nigeria, a country of 150 million people evenly split between Christians and Muslims. Wednesday's violence was the latest in a region where religious fighting already has killed hundreds of people this year — a major test for an acting president now flexing his political power.

The Cabinet had been stocked with loyalists of President Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim from the country's north. Some Cabinet members had begun to shift allegiances from Yar'Adua to Jonathan, a Christian from the country's south, as time passed. Akunyili herself had previously circulated a memo to the Cabinet calling on it to install Jonathan as acting president — providing a rare public voice for those uncomfortable with Yar'Adua's long absence from the country.

The move is the first major step by Jonathan, a 52-year-old biologist from the Niger Delta who largely remained quiet as a constitutional crisis gripped the nation over Yar'Adua's absence. Yar'Adua left Nigeria in late November for medical treatment at a Saudi Arabian hospital over what his physician described as a serious condition: an inflammation of the sac surrounding his heart.

Though the nation's constitution offers clear steps for a president to hand over power in his absence, Yar'Adua chose not to implement them. For months, many wondered how Yar'Adua would rule Africa's most populous nation from abroad.

The National Assembly empowered Jonathan to become acting president in a vote Feb. 9. Two weeks later, Yar'Adua's handlers apparently whisked the ill president back to the presidential palace in an ambulance surrounded by a military convoy. However, Yar'Adua still has not been seen publicly since returning.

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