Nigeria looks to new president for change

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP)

In his first two months in office, Nigeria’s shy, aristocratic president has faced a nationwide strike, violence in the country’s oil region and accusations that he is too timid for the job.

But these challenges pale compared with the country’s corruption, decaying infrastructure and poverty. This nation of 140 million expects a lot from President Umaru Yar’Adua.

“These big men always have big talk,” said Raymond Olanre as he hawked newspapers on a potholed road. Mr. Yar’Adua “says he will give us water and light, but that is just what the previous [president] said.”

Electricity and clean water are just some of the basics that Africa’s largest oil exporter has failed to deliver to its citizens. Mr. Yar’Adua has made some stabs at reform, but many Nigerians fear he won’t be able to stand up to his strong-willed predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, and remake his country.

Mr. Obasanjo plucked the former state governor from obscurity and made him the governing party’s presidential candidate last year. Mr. Yar’Adua’s landslide victory in April’s elections was condemned by domestic and international observers, who charged widespread voter intimidation and vote rigging.

Under Mr. Obasanjo, Nigeria had eight tumultuous years of democracy, the longest such period since independence from Britain in 1960. But corruption and poverty remained rife.

Mr. Olanre, for example, earns about $2 a day — not much, but still more than most. He is 22, in a country where average life expectancy is 43.

There are signs that Mr. Yar’Adua, a reclusive former chemistry teacher from a royal Muslim family, is preparing for real change, according to Jibrin Ibrahim of the Center for Democracy and Development, a Nigerian think tank.

It will take a year for his true colors to emerge and, meanwhile, with a Cabinet of competing factions, “he is still not totally in charge,” Mr. Ibrahim said.

Every step forward so far has left Nigerians clamoring for more.

In a surprise move, Mr. Yar’Adua publicly declared his assets — the first Nigerian president to do so — and urged his officials to do the same.

Yesterday, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan gave in to opposition pressure by making public his personal assets of $2.3 million.

Mr. Jonathan came under attack by the news media and opposition parties for failing to emulate Mr. Yar’Adua who, within less than a month in office, made public his personal assets in June.

Mr. Yar’Adua said he decided to make his worth public in order to have enough moral ground to continue the war against corruption in a country, which is seen as one of the world’s most corrupt.

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