New Nigerian president to be sworn in

President Olusegun Obasanjo bid farewell to Nigeria, saying Africa’s most-populous nation had grown stronger and more united during his eight years of civilian leadership after years of ruinous military rule.

In a nationally-televised address last night, Mr Obasanjo hailed his successor, Umaru Yar’Adua, who is set to assume office today after elections the opposition has denounced as fraudulent and international observers have said were not credible.

“Democracy is not a destination, it’s a journey,” said Mr Obasanjo, whose 1999 election ended decades of near-constant military rule, including a particularly brutal 15-year phase that began in 1984. “We are well on our way to a greater destination.”

On Tuesday, “a new generation of leaders will take over the great responsibility of running this great and diverse nation,” he said, wearing the light blue robes and cap of his Yoruba ethnic group.

Of Yar’Adua, the ruling party electoral candidate and a reclusive 56-year-old heir of a storied political family, he said: “I am confident that he will discharge his mandate to the satisfaction of the Nigerian people.”

Mr Obasanjo said his restive nation of 250 ethnic groups among 140 million people, almost equally split between northern-based Muslims and southern Christians, had grown more united under his tenure.

While the end of repressive rule unleashed long-simmering conflict that has left 15,000 dead in political violence, Nigerians “are no longer divided along ethnic, tribal, religious lines or north-south divide,” Mr Obasanjo said.

“We have become simply Nigerians interested in the development and progress of our country. This is a great gain. Let us respect this spirit of oneness and unity in all that we do from now on.”

Under civilian rule, Nigerians say they have gained freedoms and their country has shaken its status as an international pariah run by generals bent on looting the public coffers. Mr Obasanjo has cleared the country’s books of billions of pounds of debt wracked up by the military rulers and helped end at least two of West Africa’s civil wars by sending troops to intervene.

But many Nigerians say graft has continued to flourish under Mr Obasanjo and services like electricity and water supply have degraded.

The vast majority of the country’s people live below the poverty line, while a largely corrupt political and business elite linked to Obasanjo has grown.