Umaru Yar’Adua took office as President of Nigeria on Tuesday, promising to tackle a catalogue of crises in Africa’s most populous nation and conceding that his own election was ”not perfect”. In his inaugural address at a military parade ground in the capital, Abuja, Yar’Adua began by saying there were ”lapses and shortcomings” in the vote.
A stay-at-home protest meant to embarrass Nigeria’s incoming president over flawed elections foundered on Monday as apathy and an unexpected public holiday diluted the effect. Nigerian cities were quieter than usual on the eve of the inauguration of Umaru Yar’Adua as president.
Fighters from the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) destroyed three major oil pipelines in Nigeria’s southern delta on Tuesday, the group said in an email statement. Mend said the Italian oil firm Agip’s Brass terminal, which normally exports about 200 000 barrels per day, had been affected by the attacks.
Nigeria’s president-elect, Umaru Yar’Adua, intends to tackle violence in the oil-producing Niger Delta by initiating dialogue with militants when he assumes office after disputed elections, he told the media on Thursday. Yar’Adua said he would get to work immediately on solving the crisis in the lawless delta in southern Nigeria.
The people of the oil-rich Niger Delta see the rise of one of their own to vice-president (VP) as an opportunity to reduce poverty and violence, although activists say time is tight. Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State in the delta and running mate of president-elect Umaru Yar’Adua, will carry the hopes of many in a region troubled by militancy.
No matter how many times Olusegun Obasanjo speaks of his plans to retire to his chicken farm after stepping down as president of Nigeria, millions still wonder whether he really means to relinquish power. Many Nigerians suspect the 70-year-old retired general intends to continue dominating the affairs of Africa’s most populous nation and biggest oil exporter.
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/ 19 February 2007
A short drive away from Nigeria’s capital Abuja, with its air-conditioned villas and ministers in luxury cars, life for many in the town of Maraba is a daily struggle to eat. On streets lined with rotting garbage and ramshackle stalls, Aminu Ladan polishes shoes to scrape out a living.
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/ 13 February 2007
Nigerian kidnappers have released all 24 Filipino seamen they had been holding captive in the creeks of the oil-producing Niger Delta since January 20, the men’s employer, German shipping firm Baco-Liner, said on Tuesday. The kidnappers said they had freed the men ”on humanitarian grounds” without receiving any ransom.
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/ 5 February 2007
Nigerian militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, whose release is demanded by armed groups causing havoc in the oil-producing Niger Delta, should be barred from his own trial because of bad behaviour, prosecutors said on Monday. Asari’s treason trial started a year and a half ago but the court is yet to hear a witness.
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/ 31 January 2007
The Nigerian government faces a new challenge from spiralling crime in the oil-producing Niger Delta, but wants to avoid turning Africa’s oil heartland into a battleground, Energy Minister Edmund Daukorua said. Violence, which surged in the southern delta in 2006 forcing thousands of foreign workers to flee, worsened this year.