Amidst the prolonged absence of President Umaru Yar’adua due to ill-health, another group of eminent citizens, on Wednesday, demanded the immediate swearing-in of the vice-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as acting president saying the classification of Nigeria as a terrorist state by the United States was a major fallout of Yar’Adua’s absence.

Acting under the aegis of the Jubilee Group, the members asked Nigerians to collate their signatures through their constituencies to their representatives in the National Assembly requesting them to invoke the relevant section of the constitution under the present circumstance.

According to Mr. Doyin Okupe, protem chairman of the group at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, the prolonged absence of the president had become a major source of embarrassment to the nation saying the country was now like a ship without direction.

“Perhaps one of the most devastating consequences of the president’s inability to function is the failure of the Nigerian government to give appropriate diplomatic response to the issue of the Nigerian-born terrorist, which has now led to the unfortunate classification of Nigeria as a terrorist state along with such rogue nations as Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia”, he added.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/07012010/news/news14.html