New Yorkers Rally Nigerian Consulate Over Missing President

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit

On Friday, a group of Nigerian expatriates gathered outside of the Nigerian Consulate in Midtown to protest the absence of the country's ill president.

In late November of 2009, President Umaru Yar'Adua went to Saudia Arabia for medical treatment and did not speak publicly about his absence until mid-January. Reports indicate that Mr. Yar'Adua suffers from a kidney ailment and heart disease. Last week Yar'Adua claimed in a phone interview with the BBC that he has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for two months and that he intends to return to his duties in Nigeria upon his release.

The Nigeria Democratic Liberty Forum -- the Amityville, New York based group which organized Friday's protest -- is attesting that that Yar'Adua left Nigeria without officially handing over power to the country's vice president. According to the group's chairman, Dr. Adegboyega Dada, the president has sent Nigeria into a state of political peril and unrest.

"Enough is enough. We are concerned about his health, but Nigeria has to move forward as a country. A lot of things are happening every week that need serious attention," stated Dr. Dada.

The Nigerian constitution provides for the succession of executive authority to the country's vice president. Attendees at Friday's protest said that the president's unwillingness to temporally suspend his power is indicative of the corruption that monopolizes Nigerian politics.

"They are completely handicapped. There is no government here," stated Esther Onooha as she pointed to the consulate on Second Avenue. "The government has taken everyone for granted, it has gotten out of hand."

Similar protests took place last week in London and Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria. The West African nation is the fifth largest oil supplier to the U.S. Home to 150 million people, Nigeria's population is the largest in Africa.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national who allegedly attempted to bomb an airplane over Michigan on Christmas Day, brought Nigeria to the forefront of the American media cycle. The absence of President Yar'Adua and the lack of a Nigerian ambassador to the U.S. -- a position that was vacant for one year until the appointment of Adebowale Adefuye in January -- left Nigeria without an appropriate diplomatic voice in the aftermath of the Christmas Day incident.

The crowd at Friday's protest was fewer than 30 people who stood behind a green and white banner that read, "Enough is Enough." Several staffers from the Consulate came outside to observe the activities.

Sonala Olumhense, spoke at the protest and said, Friday's event was just the beginning of a larger movement. "We want to stimulate the consciousness of the average Nigerian, wherever he or she may be around the world...to see themselves as part of this very effort to insure that things change in Nigeria."

Comments

[Oleg1]

10:59 PM on 01/26/2010

Please remove this freakish picture from your front page.

[Whinger]

03:36 PM on 01/26/2010

Look into my eyes, you are getting sleepy, very sleepy.....

[vascopyjama]

05:25 AM on 01/26/2010

That's one weird looking dude.

[LMPE]

04:34 PM on 01/25/2010

When I first learned of Umaru Yar'Adua's absence after the Underpants Bomber's failed attempt, I assumed that the Nigerian prez was on the Appalachian Trail!

[SouthJerseySteve]

03:58 PM on 01/25/2010

Sounds like he took all the money sent to him from all those email scams and is now hiding out on a deserted island in the South Pacific.....

[Squeezer55]

02:46 PM on 01/25/2010

The key problem is religious in nature. The President is Muslim and the Vice President is Christian. The President left for Saudi Arabia without symbolically handing over power because he didn't want to put the final authority in the hands of a Christian. The generals of the Nigerian military are predominantly Muslim and back him. On the other hand most of the educated Nigerians that actually run the Ministries including the all important Nigerian Oil Commission are Christian. Like Yemen , the refineries are in the north which is Muslim and the oil is primarily in the Christian south.
There are 26 states and a good number of the muslim ones have brought in Sharia law. Each time a Muslim group states it wants to bring Sharia law into a state, outside influences like Saudi Arabia give the group millions of dollars to help that happen.
Recently several hundred people have been killed in Jos, a city in the central part of Nigeria. The fight is over several things, one being the attempt to implement Sharia law in a state with hundreds of thousands of Christians.
It's going to get uglier before it gets better.

[leanjhuls2]

08:21 PM on 01/25/2010

... in conclusion, he's as corrupt as everybody else.

Well explained, though. Now I now something about Nigeria.

[Nocta Luca]

07:21 PM on 01/26/2010

Sir/Madam,
While you have made some salient points, you seem to have gotten some facts wrong, primarily because you lack a proper perspective on the Nigerian psyche.
The key problem is neither religious nor ethnic but political.
I will attempt to explain all this in the paragraphs that follow;

First of all, there are 36 states and not 26.

On Sharia Law

The reason for sharia law in Nigeria was more political than religious. And here is the reason why.
The grand norm of the federal republic of Nigeria is the 1999 constitution. Based on our constitution, any law that contradicts this constitution is null and void to the extent to which it contradicts same. Since Sharia law by default is a supreme law, it is unworkable in Nigeria as it will have to operate under the constitution. For instance, if a man has to have an arm amputated as a result of theft, he can appeal to a higher (federal) court. The federal court will almost certainly set aside this punitive measure, and the federal penal code would be applied thereafter. However, if the convict opts for amputation (as only One guy did in the past), his arm will be amputated.

Contd....

[Doc0976]

11:19 AM on 01/25/2010

This can be problematic for Nigeria and the US, but I wonder if his absence portends a larger issue at hand.