Jan 13 (Reuters) - Nigeria's ruling party decides on Thursday whether to back President Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate in April elections, in one of the tightest races since the end of military rule. Here are some facts about Jonathan.
* POLITICAL CAREER
-- Jonathan won election in 1999 as deputy governor of Bayelsa, one of three main states in the oil-producing Niger Delta, as a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party. He became state governor in 2005 after his boss was impeached.
-- He was nominated by the PDP as Umaru Yar'Adua's running mate in the April 2007 presidential race. Yar'Adua won, although the election was marred by ballot-stuffing and intimidation.
-- Jonathan led efforts under Yar'Adua to address unrest in the Niger Delta, where attacks by militants had cut oil output by around a fifth in the previous three years.
* ACTING PRESIDENT
-- Jonathan represented Yar'Adua at cabinet meetings and official functions after the Nigerian leader was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia in November 2009.
-- In his first use of executive power, Jonathan ordered troops to Jos in January to restore calm and prevent a repetition of clashes in Nov. 2008, when hundreds of residents were killed in the country's worst sectarian fighting in years.
-- Jonathan chaired his first cabinet meeting as acting head of state in February, seeking to revive government business after more than two months of stagnation.
-- He removed Justice Minister and Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa. Aondoakaa had been among ministers who held out against formally transferring power to Jonathan during Yar'Adua's absence.
* TIME AS PRESIDENT
-- Jonathan was sworn in as president on May 6, 2010, a day after Yar'Adua died, vowing to fight corruption and promising to push through electoral reforms and organise credible polls.
-- He announced a minor cabinet reshuffle in August, 2010, appointing two female opposition politicians from Nigeria's north as junior ministers.
-- Also in August, he announced his biggest policy drive yet, a multi-billion dollar strategy to end chronic power shortages by privatising the domestic energy sector.
-- Jonathan replaced the heads of the military and security services in September, consolidating his hold on power. He also announced he had submitted a bill to create a sovereign wealth fund, in a bid to end political wrangling over the OPEC member's windfall oil earnings.
-- On Sept. 15, Jonathan announced on his Facebook page that he plans to contest the 2011 elections.
* THE MAN:
-- Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was born in the Niger Delta in Nov. 1957 to a family of canoe makers. He studied zoology and worked as an education inspector, lecturer and environmental protection officer before going into politics in 1998.
-- Usually dressed in his trademark fedora and traditional caftan-like attire, he has a PhD in zoology.
-- The presidency webiste says he has been fascinated by nature since childhood, particularly the aquatic life of the mangrove creeks and waterways of his native Niger Delta.
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