Nigeria's new President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday vowed that electoral reform and fighting graft would be his top priorities as he steers the nation to its most fiercely contested polls since the end of military rule.
Jonathan was sworn in as head of state in Africa's most populous country following the death late on Wednesday of Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua, who died peacefully aged 58 after a long battle with kidney and heart ailments.
“Our total commitment to good governance, electoral reform and the fight against corruption will be pursued with greater vigor,” Jonathan said after taking the oath of office in front of ministers, governors and ambassadors in Abuja.
Maintaining peace in the Niger Delta, the heartland of the OPEC member's 2 million barrels per day oil industry, would also be a top priority, he said after being sworn in by Nigerian Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu.
Jonathan had already been running affairs of state as acting president for several months and few expect any policy changes.
Yar'Adua had been absent from the political scene since November, when he went to Saudi Arabia for treatment for a heart condition. He returned to Nigeria in February, but remained too sick to govern and never made another public appearance.
Jonathan assumed executive powers three months ago and has since appointed a new Cabinet and his own team of advisers. He will now appoint a vice president and the pair will complete the remainder of the presidential term until elections in April next year.
His choice of vice president could determine the outcome of those polls.
It is unclear if Jonathan, who is from the southern Niger Delta, will run for president because of an unwritten agreement in the ruling party that power rotates between north and south. The next four-year term is due to go to Yar'Adua's Muslim north.
“The paramount issue will be who the new vice president will be. It'll probably be a northerner [who] will be front runner for the presidency in 2011,” said Kayode Akindele, a director at Lagos-based consultancy Greengate Strategic Partners.
Yar'Adua was scheduled to be buried in his home town of Katsina at 2pm yesterday, the first of seven days of national mourning. US President Barack Obama praised his “profound personal decency and integrity.”
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