President Yar'Adua of Nigeria died late Wednesday at his villa after a long illness. The Beeb has an obituary here. It's downright pathetic that my knowledge of African politics is limited to the times I spring for a copy of The Economist, but there it is. And from what little I heard of President Yar'Adua, he came into office in 2007 with a lot of low expectations, many of which he went out to confound. A quiet man, he made a decent amount of progress in getting a handle on the violence that has plagued that oil-rich Delta region of Nigeria, but he also suffered from a chronic kidney condition that had him being treated in hospitals from Germany to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
His Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan has been acting President since February- an appropriately named man, President Jonathan (the Beeb's profile, here) will need all the good luck he can get.
My condolences to the people of Nigeria on their loss and best wishes to their new President and he shoulders the difficult task ahead...
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