ABUJA, Nigeria, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Nigeria remained without leadership at the top Friday after the cabinet rejected a move to replace ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, sources said.
The move by Dora Akunyili, the minister of communications and information, to give the presidency to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was roundly rejected by other cabinet members, the BBC reported. Sources told the British broadcaster other ministers shouted down Akunyili.
Yar'Adua, 58, has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia since Nov. 23. Three days after his admission, doctors there said he had pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart lining.
The current state of his health is unclear.
In the past two months, motions have been filed in the court to replace Yar'Adua but Nigeria's high court and the cabinet have insisted that is unnecessary.
Akunyili reportedly plans to introduce her motion again next week. A Nigerian newspaper, The Guardian, called her "the only man in the executive council."
The situation is complicated by Nigeria's regional and sectarian divisions. Yar'Adua is from the Muslim north and Jonathan from the Christian south.
Oil-rich Nigeria, with a population of 155 million, is one of the largest countries in Africa, so the political stalemate affects the entire region.
