Both houses of Nigeria's parliament on Tuesday voted to approve Namadi Sambo, a northern Muslim, as new vice president of the country, maintaining a delicate religious and geographical balance in power. The Senate was the first to clear Sambo, 55, governor of northern Kaduna state since 2007, unanimously giving him a clean bill of health in a vote that lasted less than three minutes.
Minutes later the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour. "The Senate hereby confirms the nomination of Namadi Sambo as the Vice President of the ... federation," Senate speaker David Mark said after a voice vote. Sambo, the governor of Kaduna state, was chosen for the post by President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, who was sworn in on May 6, after serving as deputy president under Umaru Yar'Adua.
Kaduna is one of several Nigerian states to have adopted Sharia law as part of their legal system. Yar'Adua, a northerner, died early this month after becoming very ill last November with a heart ailment and Jonathan, who comes from the oil-rich Niger Delta, was his constitutional successor.
The balance of power between the mainly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south is vital to the governance of Africa's most populous nation, where ethnic and religious tensions have frequently run high and led to bloodshed at the cost of hundreds of lives.
Under an agreement in the ruling party, power rotates between the north and south at national level every second election. Yar'Adua's death in his first term upset this balance. Sambo, an architect by training, rose from political obscurity to be elected governor of Kaduna state, where he was a businessman - running three firms. "He is a greenhorn in both regional and national politics," said Kaduna political commentator and rights activist, Shehu Sani. In the 1980s, Sambo served in the Kaduna State government as commissioner (minister) for agriculture, works, transport and housing.
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