Nigeria’s new president said Sunday that “security personnel” blocked the oil-rich nation from seeing its elected leader during the long illness that preceded his death, raising concerns over how strong the country’s young democracy is going into next year’s presidential election.
The admission by President Goodluck Jonathan came during his first live televised interview with the state-run broadcaster NTA before a panel of journalists who were apparently free to pose any questions they wished.
Asked if the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s wife had hidden the ailing leader from public view, Jonathan said, “It was not the first lady alone” who shielded him.
“There were senior government functionaries; they were not political office holders. They were security personnel,” Jonathan said. “I asked the security agencies to look into the conduct of their security officers.”
He declined to elaborate on what that review would entail.
In the wide-ranging, hour-long interview, Jonathan acknowledged that he had his own fears about trying to see Yar’Adua before his death on May 5. Analysts say Jonathan moved into power slowly out of fear of a possible coup against him in a nation with a long history of brutal military dictatorships.
“Supposing I forced my way in and after seeing him, something happened, and they started to make inclinations I was part of the problem,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan, a Christian from the country’s south, was sworn in as president May 6, a day after the death of Yar’Adua, a Muslim from the north. Some ruling party politicians want a northerner to run in 2010, though others have voiced support for Jonathan.