Word: obasanjo
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...surprisingly, disenchantment with the nation's political leaders runs deep. Nigeria has been a nominal democracy since 1999. But international monitors have questioned the fairness of the April 21 elections in which outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo was replaced by his favored candidate Umaru Yar'Adua, a previously obscure state Governor. "These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people, and the process cannot be considered to have been credible," said Max van den Berg, chief E.U. observer, after the vote. When Yar'Adua was sworn in as President last Tuesday, he vowed to improve...
Before becoming the handpicked successor of Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's new President, Umaru Yar'Adua, was the little-known Governor of a remote northern state. But as the new leader of Africa's most populous nation and its largest oil producer, his decisions now have a global impact. Shortly before his May 29 inauguration, Yar'Adua, 56, spoke with TIME's Gilbert Da Costa about Nigeria's future, corruption, and being...
...TIME: Some critics claim you are Obasanjo's puppet. Yar'Adua:Puppet? You obviously don't know me. I'm nobody's puppet...
...said Max van den Berg, chief election monitor for the European Union. A local alliance of civil society observers called for the cancellation of Sunday's vote. "The election was a charade," they declared. "A democratic arrangement founded on such fraud can have no legitimacy." Even outgoing President Olesegun Obasanjo, who nominated Yar'Adua as his successor, admitted: "Our elections could not have been said to have been perfect...
...More damaging, perhaps, is the question it raises about the democratic credentials of President Obasanjo, a key ally of U.S. in Africa and whose country is considered a linchpin of regional security and supplies 14% of U.S. oil imports. When he won his second term in 2003, the former military dictator was also accused of massive vote-rigging. Six months ago, the 69-year-old Obasanjo tried to rewrite the constitution to allow himself a third term as President. When that failed, he nominated Yar'Adua, 56 - until then a nonentity - as his People's Democratic Party candidate, and unleashed...