ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerians celebrated their newly reinforced democracy Friday, dancing, singing praises and releasing white doves as Muhammadu Buhari, the first candidate to beat a sitting president at the polls, became their president.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, accompanied by the commander of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. David M. Rodriguez, was the first foreign official to meet with Nigeria’s new leader after the inauguration. A senior State Department official said the United States is ready to increase military aid and could quickly send more advisers.
To roars of approval at the ceremony, Buhari pledged to take personal charge of the fight against Boko Haram Islamic terrorists and said he will root out human rights violations by the military — abuses that prevented full military cooperation from the U.S. and Britain.
Buhari, 72, a former general who ruled as a military dictator in the 1980s, calls himself a “born-again democrat” and has pledged to fight the endemic corruption that keeps a rich nation impoverished.
“We see him as our only hope against this crippling corruption,” said Efo Okorare, curator of an open-air exhibition of portraits of Nigerian leaders, pointing out the many in military uniforms.
Buhari saluted Nigerians, whether or not they voted for him.
“I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody,” he said to applause. “I intend to serve as president to all Nigerians.”
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with its biggest economy and is the largest oil producer, but government coffers have been hit by massive corruption, a devalued naira currency, low oil prices and a $63 billion debt, which grows as Nigeria borrows more to pay government salaries.
Some nervous politicians feared Buhari’s promise to retrieve ill-gotten gains signal a witch hunt. “These fears are groundless,” Buhari said, although he said some of his predecessors had acted “like spoiled children, breaking everything in the house.”
He promised to “ensure that the gross corruption” is checked.
Many African leaders attended the inauguration along with France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Buhari thanked the leaders of neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger for contributing to a multinational offensive that this year has driven Boko Haram from towns where it had declared an Islamic caliphate.
Buhari said he will not consider the war won without rescuing those held hostage by the terrorists, including more than 200 schoolgirls whose mass abduction last year prompted international outrage.
