New president pledges a new path for Nigeria

Umaru Yar’Adua was sworn in Tuesday as Nigeria’s president, pledging to be a humble “servant-leader” and to push through political reform after his election last month was widely criticized by international and local observers.

In a muted style markedly different from that of his ebullient and flamboyant predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar’Adua said he would fight poverty and corruption and reduce violent crime in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The kidnappings of foreign oil workers there have intensified in recent months, casting a shadow over the country’s most important industry.

“I offer myself as a servant-leader. I will be a listener and a doer and serve with humility. I will set a worthy personal example as your leader,” said Yar’Adua, who has a reputation for piety and is seen as having a clean record as former governor of Katsina state.

With Nigeria regularly ranked among the most corrupt countries by the independent group Transparency International, which analyzes corruption and accountability, Yar’Adua said all elected officials must change their “style and attitude.”

He called on Nigerians to give up their low expectations of their country and work to restore decency, honesty and accountability.

“Let us stop justifying every shortcoming with that unacceptable phrase ‘the Nigerian factor,’ as if to be a Nigerian is to settle for less,” he said.

Yar’Adua inherits a mountain of problems in this divided nation beset by failing infrastructure, poverty, power failures and poor government services.

The first transition from one civilian leader to another in Africa’s most populous nation has disappointed those hoping to see an improvement in its deeply flawed democracy.

Yet despite the widespread anger here over the recent balloting, the country escaped the rioting that has followed some previous elections. Nigerian unions held a two-day strike beginning Monday to protest the alleged vote-rigging, and several opposition candidates have launched legal action to contest results in some seats.

The new president promised to impose law and order in the Niger Delta to protect oil investments and to bring all parties into talks to find a fair solution to the area’s woes. But the problems appear almost insurmountable: Gangs steal millions of dollars’ worth of oil annually, and rebels demand that the government hand over control of the resource to a local population that lacks basic services such as schools and clinics.

The conflicts threaten Nigeria’s efforts to establish the country as a major credible supplier to the United States, which is looking for alternatives to Middle Eastern oil markets.

Nnamdi Obasi, an Abuja-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said Yar’Adua’s backers see him as someone determined to change Nigeria. But the backroom machinations of the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s elite are a serious obstacle to a more accountable and inclusive government, Obasi said.

“He’s like an outsider brought into the party. He was a member of the party but not part of the inner circle,” Obasi said. “If you come into power riding on the wave of a process that they set up and facilitated for you, they think you are their creation and that you are subordinated to their processes.”

The inauguration seemed an attempt to recapture the optimism that accompanied Nigeria’s transition from military to civilian rule eight years ago, with displays of motorcycle stunt riders, and dancers with hula hoops spelling out the words “Democracy Forever.”

Many African heads of state were present, but most Western leaders snubbed the ceremony to signal displeasure over the conduct of the elections.

Outgoing Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, one of the presidential candidates, also boycotted the event.

“I shall not dignify such a hollow ritual with my presence,” said Abubakar, who is out of the country, in a full-page advertisement Monday in the Nigerian Tribune newspaper.

“Democracy is in the throes of death in Nigeria and evil forces have laid siege to our country,” he added.

Some activists, including Nobel Literature laureate Wole Soyinka, have called for a transitional government to lead the country into new elections, a move rejected by the ruling party as unconstitutional.

Obasi said protests had been surprisingly muted, given the scale of the alleged electoral fraud and the resulting public anger, mainly because opposition leaders had failed to devise a cohesive strategy.

“There’s also a sense of resignation by the Nigerian electorate, a lack of will to protest,” he said, adding that people saw many opposition leaders as little different from the ruling party figures. “It’s more like watching a boxing competition, and one wins and everyone applauds and goes away.”

In the impoverished Kuchingoro suburb outside Abuja, the capital, 27-year-old shopkeeper Sandra Obika said she hoped the president would build houses, schools and hospitals for the poor. “My advice is that he should please not listen to those godfathers. He should do what the Nigerian masses want him to do.”

Salihu Mohammed, 48, a farmer, said elections were not free and fair in Nigeria, but that protests and riots would only bring disaster to the poor. He said he hoped Yar’Adua would be a just and compassionate leader.

“When our children finish school, there’s no work,” the farmer said. “Are they going to come home and start stealing because there’s no work? We need the government to help us.”

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com