Nigerian opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who appears to have defeated President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria's weekend election, won a cautious endorsement from a U.S. official on Tuesday.
Buhari's opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed victory and said Jonathan had called Buhari to concede the presidency of Africa's most populous country and top oil producer.
The U.S. State Department official who asked not to be named said Washington was ready to work with whoever was democratically elected in Nigeria and offered an optimistic, though cautious, assessment of Buhari.
"Buhari has peacefully contested the last few presidential elections and accepted the results of those votes, even when he questioned the credibility of the process," the official said.
"His leadership of the opposition over these years has demonstrated a commitment to democracy that would seem to suggest he is participating in Nigeria’s new era that began in 1999," he said.
Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been in charge since the end of army rule in 1999 but had been losing popularity due to a string of corruption scandals and the rise of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the northeast.
Buhari headed the government between 1983 and 1985 after seizing power in a military coup d'etat. He was seen as tough on corruption and rebellions, but he was viewed by many Nigerians as a military strongman who trampled civil liberties.
U.S.-Nigerian ties have been strained by U.S. frustration at Jonathan's failure to move more aggressively against Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of people in its attempt to carve out an Islamic state.
Nigeria has accused the United States of failing to sell it arms it needs to fight Boko Haram and of not sharing enough intelligence. It has also rejected claims of human rights abuses that have limited some U.S. military assistance.
J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council think tank's Africa Center, suggested there was a desire on both sides for a new chapter in the relationship.
"There has been such frustration on the part of the administration and policymakers with the last few years of the Jonathan administration that ... a number of people (here) have taken the attitude that any change would be good," he said.
"Any opportunity for a 'reset' in the relationship, or at least to start afresh, I think will be welcomed by both sides."
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