ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria’s acting leader on Sunday assured visiting former US president George W. Bush that Africa’s leading oil producer is turning its back on flawed elections come next year.
Goodluck Jonathan told Bush during talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja that 2011 elections will be credible, the presidency said.
“I can assure you that come 2011, Nigeria’s elections will be credible,” Jonathan said.
The United States criticised Nigeria’s 2007 election as “seriously flawed” and marred by “malfeasance and vote-rigging.”
Jonathan, who came in under that election, along with ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, vowed to do all to ensure the west African giant turns a leaf on its history of tainted polls.
“We will do everything possible to overhaul the electoral process and leave a lasting legacy in our political history,” Jonathan said, according to a statement.
Bush (was) in Nigeria to attend an award ceremony in Abuja organised Sunday by privately owned newspaper ThisDay to mark Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary.
Jonathan also took the opportunity of the visit to “call on the US government to reconsider its stand on the listing of Nigeria among countries of interest under watch in the global war against terrorism.”
Nigeria is on a US list of 14 countries for which special security has been ordered on all flights heading to the United States after a 23-year-old Nigerian was charged with trying to blow up an airliner over Detroit using explosives sewn into his underwear on Christmas day.
The acting president “reiterated that terrorism is alien to Nigeria”.
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