Word: shagari
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Five days later the last votes had been tallied and officials announced that President Shehu Shagari, 58, had been overwhelmingly re-elected as leader of the world's fourth largest democracy (after India, the U.S. and Japan). Shagari, a soft-spoken Muslim who writes poetry in Hausa, the language of the north, won more than 12 million votes, or 47% of the total. He satisfied a second requirement, designed to ensure broad national support, by garnering 25% of the vote in 16 of the country's 19 states...
...best envoys to the kingdom, "a first-rate professional diplomat who always dealt with us honestly and intelligently." Beneath his softspoken, scholarly demeanor, Pickering can be personable and witty. Indeed, he established an unusual rapport both with Jordan's King Hussein and with Nigerian President Shehu Shagari...
...Shagari's leadership is widely acknowledged to have been an effective balm for the country after a turbulent decade in which Nigeria was racked by three military coups and a bloody civil war. He has promoted a spirit of unity by evenhandedly distributing federal funds to the country's 19 states, regardless of which party is in local control. In an effort to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food, Shagari launched a "green revolution," an ambitious rural development program. He has also made education a top priority; hundreds of new schools have been built since he came...
...scholarly, soft-spoken Muslim given to wearing the beaded cap and flowing white robes traditional to northern Nigeria, Shagari, 57, looks more like a poet than a veteran of the rough-and-tumble of politics. In fact, he is both, although he confesses that he has had little time for verse since becoming President. Active in politics even before Nigeria became independent from Britain in 1960, he was one of the architects of Nigeria's new constitution, which was modeled after that of the U.S. and went into effect...
Divided as it is, the opposition could still cut into Shagari's support enough to deny him an outright victory. Nigeria's constitution requires that a presidential candidate must win both a plurality of the popular vote and 25% of the ballots in two-thirds of the states. The law was designed to ensure that presidential candidates would seek support nationwide and come to office with broad backing. If Shagari or any other candidate fails to meet that requirement, the political horse trading could go on for months-at great peril to the country's hard...