Obasanjo will take office May 29

March 16, 1999
Web posted at: 5:41 p.m. EDT (1741 GMT)

In this story: A wealthy but looted nation Nigeria could be example around Africa RELATED STORIES, SITES

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- As Nigerian President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo prepares for his inauguration, much of Africa and the world is watching Nigeria's transition to popular rule, which has proven elusive in the past.

Obasanjo will take office May 29 as Nigeria's first elected president in two decades. He has already made several important decisions about the country's course and toured African capitals to build ties between his incoming government and others.

On Tuesday Obasanjo went to talk to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about improving inter-African and bilateral relations. He also reaffirmed Nigeria's peacekeeping commitment to Sierra Leone, where a joint West African force has been trying to maintain order amid that country's civil strife.

At home, however, he has to rebuild a country left in terrible shape by decades of military misrule.

With 110 million people, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and its people are hungry for change. Meeting that demand will be Obasanjo's greatest challenge -- particularly in education, economy and extensive corruption.

"Those are areas where one should not say they are expecting too much, because they are areas where things should be done and should be done fast," Obasanjo said.

A wealthy but looted nation

Though Nigeria is rich with oil and agriculture, the generals who ruled it for all but a few years since independence spent much of their time enriching themselves and left the country's infrastructure in ruins.

Obasanjo was one of those military rulers in the late 1970s. Nigeria's current leader, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, called for the February elections that brought Obasanjo to power and is expected to yield power to Obasanjo in May.

Another problem Obasanjo will face is the country's staggering debt. Nigeria owes international creditors more than $30 billion, and a yearlong slide in oil prices worldwide has left its budget in deficit.

Nigeria ended years of strained relations with the International Monetary Fund in January when it agreed to take steps to rebuild a good name with creditors.

IMF's managing director, Michel Camdessus, is to arrive Wednesday to persuade Obasanjo to continue liberalizing Nigeria's economy.

But during the election campaign, Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party attacked Abubakar's privatization plans. During Obasanjo's 1976-79 military dictatorship, the state took a greater role in Nigeria's economy.

Nigeria could be example around Africa

If Obasanjo successfully leads Nigeria's transition out of dictatorship, many observers say he could set an example for other struggling African countries, such as Angola, Congo and Sudan.

"If Nigeria can become a powerful democracy, a powerful source of influence for peace, I think they will have a beneficial effect in those other countries," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who helped monitor Nigeria's elections.

Added John Nwodo, Nigeria's minister of information: "The world has welcomed this development as a fundamental break from the past, and we have seen positive relations with countries that had hitherto wanted to have nothing to do with Nigeria."

Many still fear the military will renege on its promise to give up power to civilian rule on May 29. That fear led many to discourage the loser of last month's presidential election from challenging the results.

Former Finance Minister Olu Falae led a team of lawyers into the Court of Appeals in Abuja to file his protest Monday nevertheless.

"Very few have said, `Go to court,'" Falae said. "But my conscience has told me to go to court, and to court I am going."

His protest accuses Obasanjo's agents of buying votes with money, rice, curry and salt. It also says Obasanjo was not a valid candidate because of his alleged membership in a secret society and because he had been convicted of treason. Nigerian and international monitors have said supporters of both candidates stuffed ballot boxes.

Correspondent Jim Clancy and Reuters contributed to this report

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