Nigeria gets civilian govt

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 9

Nigeria gets civilian govt

N’ZPA-Reuter Abidjan, Ivory Coast Alhazji Shehu Shagari was yesterday sworn-in as Presi-I dent and chief executive of Nigeria, marking the end of} more than 13 years of rnili-] tary rule in the oil-rich} West African country. The ceremony, broadcast! live by Lagos Radio, was! preceded by a military par- 1 ade and a fly-past on the Nigerian capital of Lagos’s, 'main Tafawa Baiewa square. | Thousands of Nigerians cheered as President Shagari} took the oath of allegiance to I the American-style Con-] stitution of the second re-} public and was sworn-in by! Nigeria’s chief justice after! inspecting troops from the; various forces.

The outgoing Head qf , State. Major-General Oluse- , gun Obasanjo, who is retiring from the armed forces to devote himself to farming, I shook hands with President; i Shagari. Earlier, in a broadcast to the nation — his last: } —he called o. al! Nigerians] } to strongly support the civil-11 lian Administration. I The new President said in]: [a radio and television broad-i: 'cast to the nation: “Thislt Administration is determined [that the slogan of one}: nation, one destiny shall bed translated into reality." I; ! He urged the need to in-il ] tegrate “the various ethnic]) groups in Nigeria in fairness: and without acrimony." Mr Shagari said Nigeria]; faced great challenges, 1 among them the expansion ;

of agriculture, for which foreign help would be enlisted. He reaffirmed Nigerian support for liberation movements in southern Africa. Nigeria's return to civilian I rule follows a similar move in Ghana last week and ]marks a further step in a. [drive in Africa towards a re-: (turn to some sort of parliamentary democracy, observers said.' According to Nigerian [sources. President Shagari ■ faces a difficult task ahead land will need all the support , he can get from opposition parties. His Nigerian National Party has only 168 elected members in the 449-seat House of Representatives' and 36 senators in the 95-

member senate, observers noted. If the four other legal parties banded together, they would hold a two-thirdsj ■majority in both Houses. But] the Opposition movements, are divided and President! : Shagari is playing on their ] divisions, the sources said; The swearing-in ceremony! took place on the nineteenth anniversary of Nigeria’s! independence from Britain. j Earlier, oil industry! sources in London have said that Nigeria. whose rumoured possible oil price rise sent the United States; dollar tumbling last week and boosted the world free-] market price of oil, has} apparently decided against a] price rise after all.