Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan named an anti-terrorism co-ordinator and a new adviser for the Niger Delta oil region late on Wednesday, in a sign he aims to tighten national security ahead of April elections.
A New Year’s Eve bomb in the capital Abuja, attacks by a radical Islamist sect in the remote northeast, and the threat of violence in the Niger Delta have led Jonathan’s opponents to question his ability to guarantee security.
Jonathan named Kingsley Kuku, who has worked on several peace committees and was a senior member of the Ijaw Youth Council ethnic rights group, as his special adviser on the Niger Delta, home to Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.
Kuku replaces Timi Alaibe, who quit last year to run for the governorship of Bayelsa state in April elections.
He also named former national intelligence agency boss Zakari Ibrahim as coordinator of anti-terrorism efforts, a new post Jonathan pledged to create in the wake of the Abuja attack.
