Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan announced a series of anti-terrorism initiatives on Monday as he looks to regain control after a wave of attacks in the last week of 2010 rocked Africa's most populous nation. Jonathan is preparing to contest in ruling party primaries next week that are likely to be the most fiercely contested since the end of military rule more than a decade ago.
A bombing in Nigeria's capital Abuja on New Year's Eve killed four people, a week after 80 were killed in a series of blasts and subsequent violence in the central city of Jos. Religious clashes in the north-east have killed more than a dozen with police pointing the finger at a militant sect that claimed responsibility for the Abuja blast.
Jonathan will be hoping his show of intent on Monday will help boost confidence in his leadership credentials as rivals look to seize on any signs of weakness. "Mr President in the next one week is to appoint a special adviser on terrorism," presidential spokesman Ima Niboro said after an emergency meeting of Nigeria's security council. "Mr President is going to work with the National Assembly to ensure the speedy passage of the anti-terrorism bill that is before the assembly."
Niboro said four new presidential committees would be launched, including a group working on controlling explosives and another to promote public security awareness. Nigerian elections usually favour the incumbent and Jonathan is the frontrunner. But an unofficial party pact says that power within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.