LAGOS, Nigeria, March 17 (UPI) -- Goodluck Jonathan, the acting president of Nigeria, dismissed the Cabinet Wednesday appointed by President Umaru Yar'Adua, a spokesman said.
An aide said Jonathan, named acting president last month, felt "he could not wait any longer" to change the top levels of his government, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yar'Adua left the country late last year for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
The aide said Jonathan does not plan to run for president in 2011. But he said Jonathan believes the country cannot afford a longer period of weak government at the top.
"Goodluck feels that the Nigerian people and history will not forgive him if he allows the government to become dormant," the aide said.
Recent attacks by Christians and Muslims around the city of Jos have killed about 500 people since January. There has also been an uptick in violence in the Delta region, the area that makes Nigeria one of the world's major oil producers, with two bombs exploding outside a government conference.
