Nigeria hopes ascetic Yar'Adua will sweep clean; First university-educated leader since 1975 has to overcome the opportunists, writes Robyn Dixon.(Dispatches)

From: The Sunday Independent (South Africa) | Date: May 20, 2007 | Copyright information

Africa's next Big Man likes to pray on the ground under the same tree outside the same local mosque where he has knelt for 15 years. And as governor of Katsina state in northern Nigeria, he has generally driven himself around in a simple car.

Umaru Yar'Adua is pious, taciturn and humble, a man of ascetic tastes. Now he is about to become one of Africa's most powerful men: president of oil-rich Nigeria, a vast nation of 135 million people with huge geopolitical clout.

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