Good news out of Nigeria has been pretty hard to find for decades, let alone years, so it is worth noting the political events of the last year in a mood of cautious optimism. In February the first post-dictatorship general election was won by Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo was himself once a military ruler of the country back in the 1970s but suspicion aroused by this past has been at least provisionally shelved in the light of his apparent commitment to national democratic renewal after three decades of more or less continuous military rule.

MARCUS ROSE / PANOS PICTURES

Transitional ruler General Abubakar handed over power in May and President Obasanjo immediately put all government contracts made since January under review, establishing an anti-corruption commission. At the new government’s request Switzerland froze bank accounts belonging to the late dictator Sani Abacha, his family and business associates, who are reported to have stolen more than two billion dollars from the Nigerian Central Bank.

Setting a clear course against corruption will be hard enough – not only did a new anti-corruption index this year find Nigerian public officials the world’s most likely to take a bribe but also it is the canker of corruption which has destroyed the country’s rare experiments with democracy in the past. But perhaps even more significant has been President Obasanjo’s determination to address key human-rights issues and return Nigeria to ‘the rule of law’. Key military and police officers from the past two military regimes have been arrested and will face murder trials. In addition there will be a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission. Headed by a judge, Chukwudifu Oputa, this Human Rights Violations Panel has accepted 11,000 submissions for investigation including murders, embezzlement and the hanging of author and Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. The real test will be the examination of former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida who, unlike Abacha, is still alive and kicking.

Obasanjo even threw down the gauntlet at the feet of the oil transnationals which have effectively ruled the roost in the Delta region – in October they were given six weeks to produce a firm environmental clean-up plan in the Delta, and to adopt poverty-alleviation measures and good housekeeping practices to minimize future pollution. The transnationals also had the discomfort of having the blame for Ken Saro-Wiwa’s death laid at their door.

Not all are convinced by these developments: some detect signs of Obasanjo’s old authoritarian habits reasserting themselves in his hardline response to ethnic unrest. And the problems are enormous – ethnic conflict over the last few months has left more than 1,000 dead; disgruntled military officers have fuelled a growth of private armies; while in October the northern state of Zamfara introduced strict Islamic sharia law, including amputations and beheading, provoking further fears of religious division and conflict (Obasanjo himself is a born-again Christian).

But the sense of democratic purpose about politics in Nigeria this year has been as undeniable as it has been unaccustomed.