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Nigerian cops to curb protests
29/05/2007 12:31 - (SA)
Abuja, Nigeria - Troops and police set up roadblocks and patrolled streets in volatile districts of Nigeria's biggest city on Tuesday, saying opposition leaders would not be allowed to go ahead with a planned protest of the inauguration of a new president whose election victory has been challenged.
The opposition vowed to protest nonetheless, underlining tensions in Africa's most populous country as it struggled to consolidate democracy after decades of military rule. The opposition has denounced April elections as fraudulent and international observers have said were not credible.
Police said a coalition of labour and civic groups did not obtain an official permit for the protests planned in Lagos. Lanre Ehonwa of the Civil Liberties Organisation, one of the civic groups supporting the protests, said the constitutional provision permitting public processions superceded a colonial law requiring police permits for rallies.
"We are going ahead with our protest rallies," Ehonwa said.
The inauguration ceremony, meanwhile, began in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with Umaru Yar'Adua set to take the oath of office. Yar'Adua, a reclusive 56-year-old of a storied political family, is the hand-picked successor of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
'Democracy is not a destination, it's a journey'
On Tuesday, "a new generation of leaders will take over the great responsibility of running this great and diverse nation", Obasanjo said in a nationally televised farewell address on Monday night.
"Democracy is not a destination, it's a journey," said Obasanjo, whose 1999 election ended decades of near-constant military rule, including a particularly brutal 15-year phase that began in 1984. "We are well on our way to a greater destination."
Obasanjo said his restive nation of 250 ethnic groups and 140 million people, almost equally split between northern-based Muslims and southern Christians, had grown more united under his tenure.
While the end of repressive rule unleashed long-simmering conflict that has left 15 000 dead in political violence, Nigerians "are no longer divided along ethnic, tribal, religious lines or north-south divide", Obasanjo said.
"We have become simply Nigerians interested in the development and progress of our country. This is a great gain. Let us respect this spirit of oneness and unity in all that we do from now on."
Under civilian rule, Nigerians say they have gained freedoms and their country has shaken its reputation as an international pariah run by generals bent on looting the public coffers. Obasanjo has cleared the country's books of billions of dollars of debt wracked up by the military rulers and helped end at least two of West Africa's civil wars by sending troops to intervene.
But many Nigerians say graft has continued to flourish under Obasanjo and services like electricity and water supply have degraded. The vast majority of the country's people live below the poverty line, while a largely corrupt political and business elite linked to Obasanjo has grown.
Armed struggle in the southern oil region of Africa's biggest crude producer by militants seeking more petroleum funds for the region has increased markedly in the past 18 months - handing Yar'Adua one of his most-nettlesome problems.
Obasanjo gave himself high marks as a civilian ruler, then wished his people farewell.
- AP
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