LAGOS, Nigeria | Oil-rich Nigeria’s acting leader, Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in Thursday as president of Africa’s most populous nation, as officials buried the flag-draped corpse of his Muslim predecessor before sundown.
The power shift to Mr. Jonathan, a Christian, peacefully ended a profound leadership crisis triggered in November when elected President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died Wednesday at the age of 58, left the country for medical treatment without transferring authority to his deputy.
Mr. Jonathan already had assumed presidential powers Feb. 9 after an extraordinary National Assembly vote was called to resolve the leadership vacuum left when Mr. Yar’Adua was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for an inflamed heart.
Nigeria has been plagued by military coups for much of its 50 years of independence, and Mr. Jonathan will have to keep a lid on the volatile nation’s sectarian division, as well as oil-industry violence and kidnappings as it edges toward a tense presidential election next year.
Early Thursday, Mr. Jonathan put on a sash bearing the green, yellow and white colors of Nigeria, signifying he had formally taken over from Mr. Yar’Adua. Mr. Jonathan will serve as president through next year’s vote, likely to be held by April 2011. He also will be able to select a vice president, whose appointment will be subject to Senate approval.
Soldiers and police officers accompanied Mr. Yar’Adua’s corpse on a flight Thursday to his home state of Katsina in the country’s Muslim north. There, mourners carried his body on their shoulders into a local soccer stadium for a final prayer service. A local imam led the prayers, calling out “God is great” in Arabic and raising his hands to the sky as an anxious and curious crowd jostled around the coffin before it was buried at a cemetery near his home.
In a brief national address, Mr. Jonathan promised his administration would focus on good governance during its short tenure, focusing especially on electoral reform and the fight against corruption.
But “one of the true tests will be that all votes count and are counted in our upcoming presidential election,” Mr. Jonathan said.
An unwritten power-sharing agreement within Nigeria’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) calls for the presidency to alternate between Nigeria’s Christians and Muslims. However, Mr. Yar’Adua was still in his first four-year term, and leaders in the north had expected him to serve two terms.
If Mr. Jonathan runs for the office, his candidacy could shatter the ruling party, which has the political muscle necessary to manipulate Nigeria’s unruly and corrupt electoral system. Analysts also warn a Jonathan presidential bid could spark fresh violence in a nation of 150 million people split between Christians and Muslims, especially if northern leaders believe they will lose power in the process.
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