By Daniel Flynn MUDURU, Nigeria, April 24 (Reuters) - Just a few kilometres (miles) from the home of Nigeria's president-elect, the town of Muduru gasps for water under the blazing sun and its people are desperate for change. Sweat-drenched men push carts of jerry cans full of water from wells dug in a dry river bed near the mud-brick settlement, where temperatures climb well over 40 degrees Celsius in April. "There is a very serious and acute shortage of water. That is our most pressing need, and after that education," said Sani Garba, the traditional ruler of Muduru. "These people live in poverty, they need jobs and skills," he said. "We hope the new president will make things better." It is a familiar story in Africa's largest oil exporter, where less than half of the 140 million people have access to clean water and one in five children die before the age of five. Like many poor villages in Nigeria's Muslim north, Muduru scrapes together a poor living from agriculture -- one of the seven sectors that Umaru Yar'Adua has promised to make a pillar of his administration. PARCHED STATE Yar'Adua, governor of this parched northern state of Katsina, was declared the winner of Saturday's presidential polls although observers have said they were widely rigged. With low expectations of democracy, many ordinary Nigerians are keen for Yar'Adua to concentrate on the basics. "Yar'Adua must keep the sycophants away from him and listen to the needs of ordinary Nigerians," said Chris Ogeh, a hotelier in the state capital Katsina, near Muduru. "What the people of Nigeria need is water and roads." While Yar'Adua has won praise for boosting Katsina's transport network during his eight years as governor, critics say he failed on water and education. Muduru is suffering from a lack of infrastructure investment that also afflicts the rest of the country. The pipes that should bring water to the village are too old, villagers say. Nigeria's ageing electricity network, which outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo made a priority of his government, produces a fraction of the country's power needs despite billions of dollars of investment. Blackouts are frequent and sometimes last for days. The opposition says much of the money has been siphoned off by corrupt members of the ruling People's Democratic Party. Law enforcement officials estimate almost half the annual $40 billion oil income is stolen or wasted. Yar'Adua, a former university lecturer plucked from obscurity by Obasanjo, is one of the few state governors not under investigation by the federal anti-corruption commission. Critics question some of his spending as governor, including a $17 million contract awarded to a family firm to build a new government headquarters. But his election victory sparked dancing on the streets of Katsina by his supporters. "He is a good man, an honest man, a hard worker," said Abdulrahaman Ismail, 32. "He will take Nigeria by surprise."
