When Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua left the country in November 2009 to seek treatment for a heart ailment, few anticipated that both he and Africa's most populous country would end up on life support.
The leadership crisis resulting from
Yar'Adua's failure to constitutionally hand over power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan -- either at the time of his departure or since -- has had more than just political implications for Nigeria. It has rocked the oil sector and threatened to undo substantial security gains made in the oil-producing Niger Delta, following a mostly successful amnesty and demobilization program for the region's largest rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). ...