Nigerian victor vows to tackle Boko Haram
• As Nigerians celebrated the electrifying victory Wednesday that returned one of their harshest former dictators to power, sobering challenges confront Muhammadu Buhari, from an Islamic insurgency that has killed thousands to widespread poverty and graft.
The 72-year-old made history as the first opposition party candidate to win elections in Africa’s most populous nation, ending President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for another term. For a former general who three decades ago led Nigeria after a coup, it was an amazing transformation into a democratically elected president.
Fresh from his victory, Mr. Buhari warned the brutal Boko Haram insurgents he would be coming after them.
“Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our will and commitment to rid this nation of terror,” he said as he received a certificate attesting to his victory. “We shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism.”
The bespectacled presidentelect also warned corruption would not be tolerated after he takes office May 29.
As Nigeria’s leader three decades ago, he returned looted state assets to government coffers, but his “war against indiscipline” also put soldiers in the streets with whips to enforce traffic laws and imposed humiliating punishment on tardy civil servants. His regime executed drug dealers, jailed journalists critical of the government and passed laws that allowed indefinite detention.
On Wednesday, Mr. Buhari, who insists he has undergone radical change and now em- braces democracy, pledged to take on the twin scourges of corruption and an Islamic uprising he said has “challenged Nigeria to its limits.”
“Corruption attacks and seeks to destroy our national institutions and character ... distorts the economy and creates a class of unjustly enriched people,” he said. “Such an illegal yet powerful force soon comes to undermine democracy because it has amassed so much money that they believe they can buy government.”
Boko Haram, whose barbarous campaign to establish an Islamic “caliphate” has driven 1.5 million from their homes, kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls and left large swaths of northern Nigeria burned to ashes, has in recent weeks been hit hard by forces from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Mr. Jonathan, whose party has governed Nigeria since decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999, conceded with grace late Tuesday, saying, “I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word.”
In a continent where there have been cases in which a sitting president refused to accept defeat at the polls and violence resulted, the smooth turnover was welcomed by Nigerians and foreign leaders alike.
In the northern city of Kaduna, thousands celebrated in the streets, shouting “No Boko Haram! No Boko Haram!” Many danced and held up posters of Mr. Buhari, waving brooms to symbolize his pledge to sweep out corruption. Mr. Jonathan’s concession defused tensions and fears of post-election violence. About 1,000 people died in riots in Nigeria’s Muslim north after Mr. Buhari lost to Mr. Jonathan in 2011.