Nigeria's Jonathan Removes His Party's 'Place Man'

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday announced the resignation of the chairman of his ruling party, under pressure from relentless criticism and the weakening of his political power base.

Jonathan told the national executive committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Bamanga Tukur had stepped down, seen as a move to try to calm competing factions and heal divisions.

"For us to make sure that we put to rest these issues, the party chairman agreed to step aside," Jonathan told delegates at a meeting in the capital, Abuja.

Tukur had been considered an undemocratically appointed place man for Jonathan within the party, with critics using his presence to bolster their opposition to the president.

In November last year, five influential state governors defected to the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) while 37 members of the lower chamber of parliament crossed the floor a month later.

The lawmakers' actions lost the PDP its parliamentary majority, raising the prospect that it could lose power for the first time since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.

At the heart of the dispute is the perception that Jonathan will ignore an unwritten party rule to rotate the presidency between a candidate from the Christian majority south and mainly Muslim north.

Jonathan is a southern Christian.

The president said he had given Tukur "a new assignment" to "market this country and market the PDP", without going into details, and that his replacement should be from the north and named next week.

Jonathan also said he was unperturbed by the party defections, dismissing them as "normal" and vowing that the PDP would get "stronger and stronger".

"Before the end of March, people will just relax and say, 'it's over'," he said.

"As long as we do things the way we should do, I believe, and I'm convinced, that (the) PDP will continue to be the number one party in this country," he added.

Bayo Okunade, a professor of political science at the University of Ibadan, said Tukur's resignation was inevitable to avoid the destruction of the PDP.

"It is a good thing for democracy. It is a triumph for democracy that the party was able to force him out," he told Agence France Presse.

"His leadership of the party was already affecting the machinery and internal workings of the party."

But he warned that trouble may still loom for Jonathan depending on the reaction of Tukur's supporters and whether his replacement enjoyed broad support in the party.