Media Talk: A new government but is Nigeria ungovernable?

With the new president sworn in after rigged elections, Nigeria is still in pitiful state and the conflict in the oil-rich Niger delta is escalating so what lies in store for Africa’s most populous nation?

Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, says that his chosen successor will show a different type of leadership but the new president, Umaru Yar’Adua, has his work cut out. He has to battle with entrenched corruption, dire poverty and  crumbling infrastructure. To add to his woes, attacks on oil facilities and foreign workers in the oil-rich delta are on the rise. So can he deliver a better Nigeria?

Richard Cockett has been Africa Editor of The Economist since 2005.  From 2001 to 2005 he was the their correspondent in Central America and the Caribbean. He covered the Nigeria elections last spring.

Raufu Mustapha is the Senior Researcher responsible for the West Africa Programme at Oxford University.