Nigerian president sworn in for new term

Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, has been sworn in following elections last month that were seen as the country’s fairest in two decades.

Heads of state from across Africa, foreign dignitaries, religious leaders and traditional rulers gathered on Sunday in Eagle Square in Abuja, the capital, for the ceremony and a military parade to mark the start of his four-year term.

However, Jonathan faces a divided nation after deadly post-election riots killed more than 800 people.

The rioting and massacres spread across the north of Africa’s most populous nation, with victims hacked, burnt and shot to death.

Mosques and churches were burned and people beaten after being pulled from cars.

Jonathan lacks ‘legitimacy’

Jonathan, the first president from the oil-producing Niger Delta region, will be seeking to put the violence behind him. 

However, in the north, where Jonathan’s main opponent, Muhammadu Buharu, comes from, suspicion remains as many accuse Jonathan’s party of election-rigging and reject reports from observers calling the election a step forward for the continent’s largest oil producer.

Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, who runs a think-tank in the northern city of Zaria where the home of the vice-president was torched in the riots, said: “Jonathan does not have legitimacy”.

He said that he personally witnessed numerous cases of ballot fraud, and called election observers’ claims of fairness lies.

Buhari alleged fraud in the election, but disassociated himself from the violence and did not make strong public statements against the riots as they unfolded.

Some of the distrust of Jonathan stems from the overturning of an internal ruling party arrangement that saw it rotate its candidate between the north and south every two terms.

Jonathan is serving what would have been the second term of late northern president Umaru Yar’Adua, and there is an expectation among the northern elite that at the next elections in four years, a northern candidate will take the ruling party ticket.

But should Jonathan succeed with his reform plans, particularly in privatising the power sector and ending chronic power shortages, popular opinion could again swing in his favour.