The death of Nigeria’s long-ailing president may provoke a struggle for power
THE death on May 5th of Nigeria’s president, Umaru Yar’ Adua, marks the close of a peculiar period of drift for Africa’s most populous country. The 58-year-old leader had not appeared in public since last November. Nor had he fully handed over power. A battle for the succession, already under way, will heat up ahead of next year’s polls.
Mr Yar’Adua left Nigeria for a clinic in Saudi Arabia last year, reportedly to be treated for a bad heart, having previously gone abroad because of a kidney ailment. Only a handful of his 150m compatriots, aside from his family and a few religious leaders, ever saw him again. He came home under cover of darkness in February, to be whisked away to the presidential villa. The exact cause of his death was not immediately known. …



