Before leaving, he did not formally place Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan in control of the government, essentially creating a power vacuum without any clear succession plan.

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She had trained for enough emergencies to know that beneath almost every sort of raging anxiety there was a calm pocket, a perfect little vacuum in which both thoughts and actions were crisp and clear.

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Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not a "war without end" but stressed the need for a "clear political strategy" so as not to leave a "vacuum which the Taliban will quickly fill".

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He said that legislators had a duty to the public to make it clear exactly what would happen in that situation and that legislators in Westminster do not legislate for a vacuum.

BBC: Justice Bill concluded