Nigeria minister urges president to transfer power

Jacques Lhuillery AFP 02/05/2010 04:10

President Umaru Yar'Adua has both heart and kidney problems

LAGOS — A Nigerian minister has called on ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua to transfer power, a senior official said Thursday, in the first sign of a cabinet split over his prolonged absence from the country.

Dora Akunyili, who as information minister doubles as the government's spokeswoman, called on her cabinet colleagues to revoke a decision which said that Yar'Adua was healthy enough to rule.

Nigerian newspapers reported she circulated a memorandum with the request to her ministerial colleagues at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Akunyili was not available for comment early Thursday, but a senior official who declined to be named told AFP: "What is reported in the press is correct."

The president has been receiving treatment for a serious heart condition in a Saudi Arabian hospital since flying out of Nigeria on November 23.

According to the reports, the memorandum asks the government to demand a letter from the president justifying his absence on medical grounds and allowing Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to act as "interim president".

Jonathan has been filling in for Yar'Adua but does not possess full executive powers to act as head of state.

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