Nigeria – a failed state?

The Nigerian vice-president has chaired his first cabinet meeting, a day after parliament installed him as acting head of state in the absence of the country’s ailing president.

Goodluck Jonathan assumed full presidential powers late on Tuesday to fill a power vacuum left by Umaru Yar’Adua, who has been in receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for a heart condition.

This has taken place at a time of mounting sectarian tension and evidence of systematic extra-judicial killings by security forces in a country plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy.

But some are resisting the transfer of presidential power and now a looming constitutional crisis joins the country’s other woes.

Is constitutional federalism along the lines of Nigeria’s multitude of ethnic groups the solution? Is Nigeria on its way to being a failed state?

Inside Story discusses with guests: Buba Misawa, an associate professor of political science, Musa Aliyu from the Desmond Tutu centre for war and peace studies, and Mohammed Bolori, the former government chairman in Borno state.

This edition of Inside Story aired from Thursday, February 11, 2010.