Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan sworn in as president

Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan sworn in as president

2011-05-29 23:07:21 GMT+7 (ICT)

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in on Sunday as Nigerian president in a ceremony in Abuja, the country's capital.

Next news reported that Jonathan took the oath to assume office as the country's third democratically-elected president in a lavish inauguration ceremony attended by several African presidents and other foreign dignitaries. Vice President Namadi Sambo was also sworn into office by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Alloysius Katsina-Ala.

The ceremony was replicated across the 36 states capitals where recently elected state governors also took office. Today's inauguration was the culmination of the electoral process that started last year with the appointment of a new leadership for the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Jonathan, 53, was declared the winner of last month's presidential election after receiving 57 percent of the votes, or 22,495,187 votes out of a total valid votes cast of 38,209,978. He had been handed the power to handle state affairs while President Umaru Yar'Adua was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia in January 2010, but upon Yar'Adua's return, Jonathan continued as acting President and officially succeeded him after his death in May 2010.

International monitors said the elections could be Nigeria's first credible vote for decades. Voting was reported to have generally gone smoothly, despite some reports of fraud and incidents of violence, including two bomb explosions in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

Dozens of people were killed in the run-up to the vote. Since November 2010, more than 50 people were killed in violence linked to political party primaries and election campaigns.

Nigeria has a history of violent and deeply flawed elections. Observers from the European Union described the 2007 elections as among the worst they had witnessed anywhere in the world. At least 300 people were killed, and many others injured, in violence linked to the elections. Many of the results led to court challenges.

Federal and state elections in 2003 were also marred by fraud as well as serious incidents of violence that left at least 100 people dead and many others injured.

Between independence in 1960 and 1999, Nigeria produced only two elected governments - both were overthrown in military coups. Nigeria's military ruled the country for nearly 30 of its first 40 years of independence. However, in 1999, Nigeria made a transition to civilian rule. The 1999 elections, which brought a retired general, Olusegun Obasanjo, to power, were blighted by widespread fraud.

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