Unimportant Nationalist in government for only a brief time? (9)
I believe the answer is:
lightning
'only a brief time?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'unimportant nationalist in government' is the wordplay.
'unimportant' becomes 'light' (both can mean trivial).
'nationalist' becomes 'n' (abbreviation in politics).
'government' becomes 'g' (abbreviation for government).
'light'+'n'+'in'+'g'='LIGHTNING'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lightning that I've seen before include "Discharge of electricity in the atmosphere" , "Weather featuring with 9" , "Electric discharge in the atmosphere" , "extremely fast?" , "Natural discharge of electricity" .)