President
Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states on May 14, ordering extra troops in to try to crush Islamist sect Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, whose insurgency has killed thousands of people in the past three years.
Authorities cut the mobile network to the three states in the same week to disrupt Boko Haram's operations. Service returned to Adamawa last week but there is still no signal in Borno, the state worst affected by Boko Haram's violence. Satellite phones have also been banned by the military in Borno.
Mobile phone companies such as South Africa's MTN, Gulf operator Etisalat and India's Bharti Airtel have been losing out on business from millions who live in the three affected states.
The lifting of radio silence raised optimism that the security situation has improved, although the military did not respond to requests for comment.
"They took away the network because of the security situation, now that we have it back means Yobe is gradually moving away from the bad times into good," said Inua Sani, a taxi driver in Yobe's main town, Damaturu.