President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday congratulated President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil on her victory in Sunday’s final round of her country’s presidential elections.
A statement signed by Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Reuben Abati, said “Jonathan received the news of President Rousseff’s re-election with great delight in view of the excellent relations and strategic partnership forged between Nigeria and Brazil during her first term in office.”
As President Rousseff prepares to begin a new term of office on January 1, 2015, Nigeria, Jonathan said“looks forward to working with her government to expand and further enhance existing relation with Brazil, especially in the area of trade and economic relations, for the mutual benefit of the people of both countries.”
Jonathan also hailed President Rousseff’s expressed commitment to working for greater peace, national unity and more reforms in Brazil during her second term.
Rousseff has promised to re-unite Brazil after narrowly winning re-election to a second term in office with 51.6% of the vote.
She said “dialogue” would be her top priority after a bitterly fought campaign against centre-right candidate Aecio Neves, who got 48.4% of the vote.
The left-wing leader said she wanted to be “a much better president than I have been until now”.
She faced mass protests last year against corruption and poor services.
But Ms Rousseff, who has been in power since 2010, remains popular with poor Brazilians thanks to her government’s welfare programmes.
The vote split Latin America’s biggest country almost evenly in two, along lines of social class and geography.
Whereas Rousseff did well in the poorer northern states, her opponent from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) took many of the wealthier and more developed southern parts of Brazil.
