The return of Nigeria’s ailing president after a three-month medical absence sets the stage for a showdown over who will ultimately call the shots in Africa’s most-populous nation.
President Umaru Yar’Adua, who had been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia, returned home early Wednesday but remains too ill to govern, according to a presidential spokesman.
Mr. Yar’Adua, who didn’t make a public appearance, offered a message of support for his vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, who was appointed acting president earlier this month by the Nigerian National Assembly, to serve until the return of the president.
“President Yar’Adua wishes to reassure all Nigerians that on account of their unceasing prayers and by the special grace of God, his health has greatly improved,” presidential spokesman Segun Adeniyi said. “However, while the president completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state.”
That statement appears to start a clock toward the return of Mr. Yar’Adua, 58, whose absence with kidney and heart problems left the country in political limbo. Stepping into the president’s role earlier this month, Mr. Jonathan has reshuffled the cabinet, made long-delayed government appointments and has held meetings with foreign oil companies to calm international investors and the public.
A senior adviser to Mr. Goodluck said Mr. Yar’Adua’s return was strategically timed by his supporters, coming days before he said Mr. Jonathan had planned to reshuffle the cabinet. Mr. Yar’Adua’s spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment late Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jonathan was careful not to ruffle the president’s advisers. He didn’t comment on the return Wednesday, but cancelled an official cabinet meeting in which he would have appeared as acting president.
Instead, he called a briefing session with cabinet members, according to a person present at the meeting, and told them he considered Yar’Adua the commander in chief now that he had returned, and that he would attempt to see Mr. Yar’Adua Wednesday evening.
Nigeria entered rough political waters in Mr. Yar-Adua’s absence, troubles critics say were compounded by a rudderless government.
After a young Nigerian man allegedly tried to bring down a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day, the U.S. placed the West African nation on a list of 14 countries whose air passengers will face extra security checks; an amnesty deal with militants who have attacked oil pipelines also frayed as one of the biggest groups pulled out of a cease-fire; religious violence in the Nigerian city of Jos claimed several hundred lives; and a domestic fuel shortage stoked public anger.
Meanwhile, multinational oil companies criticized stalled government decisionmaking in a country that already has one of the world’s toughest business climates. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of oil to the U.S.— and has the 10th largest oil reserves in the world—but chronic government corruption and violence in the oil-producing Niger Delta region have hampered the country’s growth and reduced international oil companies’ production levels.
The U.S. government expressed concern Wednesday. “We hope that President Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisers to upset Nigeria’s stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, the U.S.’s top diplomat for Africa. “Nigeria is an extraordinarily important country to its friends and partners, and all of those in positions of responsibility should put the health of the president and the best interests of the country and people of Nigeria above personal ambition or gain.”
Oil companies operating in Nigeria, including ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, have worried that Mr. Yar’Adua’s absence would imperil a shaky peace process in the Niger Delta and further delay long-awaited oil industry legislation.
U.S. oil companies are joined by other energy firms that have billions of dollars invested in Nigeria. An executive from French oil company Total PLC said Wednesday that it had no plans of pulling out of Nigeria and was committed to its $20 billion of investments here.
“We actually invest about $10 billion a year in Nigeria,” Alex Musa, Total’s deputy managing director for exploration and production, said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Abuja. “We’re here to stay.”
Just two days after taking over acting presidential duties, Mr. Jonathan urged oil-company executives to meet with senior government officials and address the peace process for militants from the delta. That suggestion led to the formation of an oil-industry committee given the task of addressing militancy.
An announcement of the committee’s plans was expected within days, according to an oil-company executive, but that may be delayed due to the return of Mr. Yar’Adua.
Mr. Jonathan also made efforts to push through oil-industry legislation that would drastically overhaul the industry by increasing tax and royalty rates for companies, among other measures.
During an oil industry conference in Abuja this week, Royal Dutch Shell Africa Vice President Ann Pickard warned that the petroleum industry bill would make a bad situation worse and could scare away as much as $50 billion in deep offshore oil investments.
Ms. Pickard on Tuesday called the bill a “cumbersome document that lacks insight into the very basics of our industry.”
Will Connors
Wall Street Journal / Dow Jones Newswires Correspondent