Nigerian president dies, acting leader to take over

  Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua died late on
Wednesday aged 58 after a long battle with kidney
and heart ailments, paving the way for the most
hotly contested succession since the country's
return to democracy a decade ago.
  Acting President Goodluck Jonathan -- who has been
running Africa's most populous nation for months
during Yar'Adua's illness -- is expected to be
quickly sworn in as head of state and appoint a new
deputy, according to the constitution.
  The pair will then complete the unexpired
residential term in the oil-producing nation of
more than 140 million people until elections due by
April 2011.
  The presidency announced seven days of national
mourning and said Yar'Adua would be buried in his
northern home state of Katsina at 2 pm (1300 GMT) on
Thursday.
"The nation is in shock. The nation is mourning. The
Acting President has declared seven days of mourning
and during this period the Nigerian flag will fly at
half mast," presidency spokesman Ima Niboro told
reporters.
  Information Minister Dora Akunyili told Reuters
Yar'Adua had died at around 2000 GMT in the
presidential villa.
  U.S. President Barack Obama said his thoughts and
prayers were with Yar'Adua's family and remembered
his "profound personal decency and integrity".
  Yar'Adua had been absent from the political scene
since November, when he left for medical treatment
for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia. He returned
to Nigeria in February but remained too sick to
govern.
  Jonathan assumed executive powers in February and
has since consolidated his hold on power, appointing
a new cabinet and his own team of advisers. But
Yar'Adua's death raises the stakes in the run-up to
the next elections.
  It is unclear if Jonathan, who is from the southern
Niger Delta, will run for president because of an
unwritten agreement in the ruling party that power
rotates between north and south. The next four-year
term is due to go to Yar'Adua's Muslim north.
"The paramount issue will be who the new vice
president will be. It'll probably be a northerner
and the person will be front runner for the
presidency in 2011," said Kayode Akindele, a
director at Lagos-based consultancy Greengate
Strategic Partners.

MIXED LEGACY
  Sworn-in pledging respect for the rule of law,
Yar'Adua was initially seen by many Nigerians as a
breath of fresh air after eight years of former
president Olusegun Obasanjo, an overbearing
ex-military ruler with a penchant for disregarding
court orders and legal detail.
  He was Nigeria's first university-educated leader
and won victory in April 2007 polls which, though
marred by intimidation and ballot-stuffing, marked
the first transfer of power from one civilian
president to another since independence in 1960.
But the optimism quickly faded.
  Yar'Adua earned the nickname "Baba Go-Slow", a
reference to the local term for Nigeria's crippling
traffic jams, for what critics said was slow
progress on everything from economic reforms to
restoring the shambolic energy sector.
  His biggest achievement was in the restive Niger
Delta, the heartland of Africa's biggest oil and gas
industry.
  Militant attacks rumbled on during the early part of
his tenure, but his offer of amnesty last year led
thousands of gunmen to lay down their weapons and
has brought more than six months of relative peace
in the region.
  The main militant group in the region, the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said
it was saddened by Yar'Adua's death.
"MEND considers the late president a genuine
peacemaker whose initiatives, humility and respect
began to bring confidence to the peace process," the
group said in an email to Reuters. "His death may
leave a vacuum that may not be filled."
 (Additional reporting by Camillus Eboh and Chijioke
 Ohuocha; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by
 Michael Roddy)