Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua Is OFFICIALLY Declared DEAD. Well, MANY Of Us Figured He Died Last Year In Saudi Arabia. Oh, Well ... WHATEVER!

President Yar’Adua’s death may spark power struggle in oil-rich Nigeria
Jonathan Clayton, Africa Correspondent

The official news of President Yar?Adua's death will surprise few Nigerians, many of whom believed he died many weeks ago

President Yar’Adua of Nigeria, whose long sickness plunged Africa’s most populous country into a constitutional crisis, has died, the Office of the Presidency announced last night.

A spokesman said Mr Yar’Adua, 58, passed away at 9pm at Aso Rock presidential villa, with his wife Turai by his side. He will be buried today in accordance with Muslim custom.

The official news of his death will surprise few Nigerians, many of whom believed the President — who was last seen in public half a year ago — died many weeks ago. It is almost certain to renew a vicious power struggle at the heart of Government.

The late President, a Muslim from the north, will be succeeded by his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the oil-rich south, who was nominated Acting President earlier this year.

Mr Yar’Adua’s wife brought her husband back to the country from a clinic in Saudia Arabia, where he had been receiving treatment for heart problems in February in what was seen as an attempt to stop Mr Jonathan cementing his position and becoming the ruling party’s next candidate.

Under an unwritten deal to keep rival religious and geographical groups happy, the Presidency is supposed to alternate between north and south. The northerners fear that southerners will now capitalise on the late President’s death to capture the highest office in the land before their due date.

Mr Yar’Adua was barely half way through his first term when he fell ill. The country faces elections next year and in a country where patronage rules the governing party is more or less certain of victory.

The prospect of Nigeria slipping into a protracted power struggle will ring alarm bells across the continent. Nigeria has recently seen the worst intercommunal violence for decades.

Mr Yar’Adua’s fellow northerners are determined not to let the presidency slip from their grasp before their time is up. Mr Yar’Adua was expected to stand for a second term in 2011. The northern political elite suspect that once Mr Jonathan, a southerner, steps into the presidential mansion he will not leave.

In the background lurk the military — many of whose senior generals are also northerners — which found it hard in them past to resist the temptation to carry out a coup. “The country is in crisis but despite the anarchical nature of the democracy in place, it is still better than military rule,” said Banjo Adewale, a Nigerian analyst. “It is not like the 1970s and 80s. There is no support for the military.”

Mr Yar’Adua took office in 2007 in a country notorious for corruption. He gained the accolades of many for being the first leader to declare publicly his personal assets when taking office — setting up a benchmark for comparison later to see if he misappropriated funds. But enthusiasm for his rule waned as little changed in a country burdened by years of corruption.

However, Mr Yar’Adua sought to end the violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been attacking oil installations, kidnapping oil company employees and fighting Government troops since 2006 in what it called a protest against the unrelenting poverty of the people in the region.