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Yar'Adua reiterated that his administration would reform the electoral system to deliver credible and fair polls in 2011, in what was seen as an admission that the election that brought him to power had flaws.
He said as soon as electoral tribunals conclude their work on disputes that arose out of the April elections, major reforms would start. He had made a similar promise when he was sworn in as president on May 29.
We have a lot of work to do to re-examine the electoral process so as to make future elections peaceful, credible and acceptable to the vast majority of our people. I consider this as a major legacy I want to leave to Nigeria at the end of my presidency: that we can conduct credible and transparent elections, Yar'Adua said.
While insisting that he had a genuine mandate from the Nigerian people, Yar'Adua has also recognised, on several occasions, that there were flaws in the polls.
But as the AU Summit came to an end on Tuesday, the leaders struggled to avoid a damaging public split over moves to unite the continent under a federal government which divided the leaders on the continent.
While almost all the 53 member nations agree with the goal of African economic integration and eventual unity, most of the leaders at the summit want the idea of AU Government to be carried out gradually.
But Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi and Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade, who led a more radical group, pushed for the immediate creation of a federal state stretching from the Cape to Cairo for effective continental governance.
Before the summit ended on Tuesday, Gaddafi proposed a referendum to settle the issue, insisting that building a common continental government would assist Africa to stand the tide of globalisation.
The Libyan President, who described himself a soldier for Africa, said the decision should be made by the African masses and not leaders in conference halls.
We ask all the heads of state to hold a referendum so that they will see that all the people want a United States of Africa, Gaddafi said.
Like Ghaddafi, Wade strongly promoted the creation of a union government when he addressed the summit in Ghana.
According to him, there is no salvation for Africa outside political unity. If we remain fragmented into little states, we will remain weak, politically weak.
Asked about earlier Senegalese threats that a group of five or six states could forge ahead with federation, Wade said: Theoretically, it is not excluded, but I don't think we'll be going in that direction.
If the conference as a whole makes progress towards a government that it calls a continental government, a union government that will create a basis that we can accept. But the position of Wade, Gaddafi and their supporters is far from that of the majority gradualist group.
In Uganda, we are not in favour of forming a continental government now, said President Yoweri Museveni, one of the more outspoken members of that group, based around the Anglophone southern and eastern blocs.
Museveni said while economic integration was possible, people from different regions of Africa were incompatible politically and forcing them together would create tension.
I salute the enthusiasm of those who advocate for continental government now. I however, do not want us to move from one mistake, Balkanisation, to another mistake of oversimplification of very complex situations, Museveni said.
President Yar'Adua also came down on the side of gradualism.
With both Nigeria and South Africa, backed by the eastern and southern blocs, supporting a gradual process, the pro-union group looked isolated. Wade said the debate was finely balanced.
Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili summed up the view of the moderates: "Even as we pursue this noble objective, we cannot ignore the factors that militate against it." He said surrender of national sovereignty was a "tall order".
However, African students from across West and Central Africa protested what they said "are detrimental trade agreements with developed countries.
Dominique Jenkins, Oxfam programme officer America, who attended the summit, said the students were concerned about the impact these agreements will have on African farmers and businesses.
Jenkins said: "The students, as well as other members of civil society, are quite concerned because these free-trade agreements really do not speak to the economic development of the continent."
"They threaten local industries and services that would be in direct competition with products and services coming from a much higher-developed economic region of the world," she explained.
According to her, other protests she has seen outside the summit have addressed issues related to African unity and women's rights. Ghanaian groups have also organized events to raise awareness for human rights across the continent, as well the as for the conflict in Darfur and the crisis in Zimbabwe.
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