Nigeria’s acting president is promising free and credible elections in 2011 in Africa’s most populous nation.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan said on Monday in an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations that was his clear goal that could be achieved in a year.
Jonathan has little time to address the country’s growing insecurity, religious problems and corrupt elections. The next presidential election will come in January or April of next year, and the ruling People’s Democratic Party has said it won’t back Jonathan as a candidate.
In his remarks to the council, Jonathan made just a passing reference to ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, saying only that he continues to pray for him.
Yar’Adua hasn’t been seen publicly since he left Nigeria in November for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. He returned to the presidential palace in February, but hasn’t been seen in public since then.
He’s in Washington to attend the Nuclear Summit hosted by US President Barack Obama. Jonathan met with Obama on Sunday.