Goodluck Jonathan's rise has been described as "meteoric"
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As his name suggests, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has a habit of being in the right place at the right time. Until November 2009, he was serving out his time as a low-key deputy to a low-key president. But then, President Umaru Yar'Adua was taken to hospital in Saudi Arabia and was not seen in public until he died on 5 May 2010. Step forward, Mr Jonathan. After months of political wrangling, Nigeria's elite finally accepted him as acting leader in February when the ailing president returned home, but remained too ill to govern. Barely 12 hours after Mr Yar'Adua's death, Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as the new president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Africa's most populous nation - one of its most fractious democracies. Not bad for a man who has never been elected to major public office in his own right. Hand-picked deputy Born in 1957 in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, Mr Jonathan is a Christian from the Ijaw ethnic group. His family's trade was canoe-making, but he studied zoology at university.
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There has not been any rise that's been so meteoric in Nigeria
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He worked as an education inspector, lecturer and environmental protection officer before going into politics in 1998. Just as his rapid rise to power in the federal government owed a lot to luck, so too did his promotion to state governor. Elected as deputy governor for his home state, Bayelsa, in 1999, he was once again serving his time without particular distinction. Until, that is, his boss was impeached on corruption charges. Mr Jonathan took over as governor and two years later was hand-picked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to run on the ruling PDP's ticket as vice-presidential candidate in 2007. The BBC's Fidelis Mbah says insiders regard him as a politician without a political base - and more of an administrator than a leader. It has been suggested that Nigeria's many groups of power-brokers agreed to let him formally become acting president only because he was not seen as a threat - and crucially would not seek to contest the election due in 2011. But there can be no doubting the speed and relative smoothness of his assumption of power. "There has not been any rise that's been so meteoric in Nigeria," analyst Charles Dokubo said in February. On the relevance of the acting president's name, he said: "What is luck? Luck is when you can take advantage of an opportunity. He was in the right place at the right time." Journalist Ben Shemang is among the many Nigerians who believe Mr Jonathan's name has given him an advantage. He told the BBC's World Today programme that Mr Jonathan was doubly lucky as his other given name is equally propitious - Ebele, which means God's wish. "That tells you that it was the wish of the parents for him to be successful," he said. Militant work His rise to power, though, has not been without its share of controversy. His wife, Patience, was investigated by anti-corruption officials in 2006 over allegations she tried to launder some $13.5m.
She has never been convicted of any wrongdoing over the affair and officials told AP the case was "an old one". Mr Jonathan has also been the target of attacks by militants in the delta region. During the 2007 election, his house was attacked, but he was not there at the time. If Mr Jonathan's time as vice-president was distinguished at all, it was through his negotiations with militants in the delta, who are mostly his fellow Ijaws. Many of the major militant groups have laid down their weapons, others have formed uneasy truces with the government. Much of the credit for this shaky peace has been given to Mr Jonathan. But that was Mr Jonathan the vice-president. It remains to be seen what path Mr Jonathan, the president will tread.
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