Nigeria has a new president. Nigeria’s vice president and acting leader Goodluck Jonathan sworn in Thursday morning hours after the death of their president Umaru Yar’Adua Wednesday after battling a lengthy illness. Although it has been three months since Jonathan assumed leadership, it was just this Thursday that he was able to put on a sash bearing the green, yellow and white colors of Nigeria to signify that he had taken over the presidency from the deceased Yar’Adua.
Umaru Yar’Adua, who long had suffered from kidney and heart ailments, was lately been flown and taken care of in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. But a peace plan Mr. Yar’Adua had enacted for the violence-plagued oil-producing south seemed in danger of falling apart when he was unable to transfer power before he left. Several low-level civil wars over oil and religion rocked Nigeria after he was flown to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Treatment.
Jonathan assumed the office of the president since early February when Mr. Yar’Adua’s lengthy hospitalization forced the National Assembly to transfer power to him. After Yar’Adua’s death, Jonathan will swerve as Nigeria’s president until next year’s election that is likely to be held by April 2011. He will also be needing to select a vice president subject to Senate approval.
After taking the oath of office, Mr. Jonathan addressed that his management will to combat the country’s chronic corruption problems and will focus on excellent supremacy throughout his less-than-a-year tenure. He said that he will mainly work on electoral reform and to battle bribery. He also made a ledge to prioritize establishing peace and harmony in the oil producing Niger Delta, where he himself is a native.
The new president said that Yar’Adua left for him a reflective inheritance, a “profound legacy” for him to follow. Yar’Adua’s remains will be buried on Thursday in his hometown of Katsina.