Tinubu sworn in as Nigerian president

Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos governor who is credited with helping the city-state increase its revenue base, has been sworn in as Nigeria’s new president.

He took the oath of office from Chief Justice Olukayode Ariwoola in a colourful ceremony attended by local and foreign dignitaries on Monday in Abuja, the capital.

Tinubu, 71, succeeds Muhammadu Buhari, who was ineligible to run again after two four-year terms that began in 2015.

The new president, the fifth since the return of democracy in 1999, will have to tackle a struggling economy and widespread insecurity in Africa’s most populous country.

His supporters say he will replicate his success in diversifying Lagos’s tax revenue and increasing its internally generated revenue to the national stage.

Tinubu, also a former senator, aided Buhari’s rise to the presidency in 2015, defeating the incumbent president at the time to make history.