(refiles fixing typo in paragraph 17)

By Tom Ashby

LAGOS, May 10 (Reuters) - Ibrahim Yusuf voted for the defeated opposition in last month's violent and fraud-plagued Nigerian election.

But he will not be taking to the streets to protest.

Like many Nigerians, this 27-year-old student has accepted the result which gave the ruling party a landslide victory and he hopes the new president, Umaru Yar'Adua, will do an honest job.

Opposition parties and civil society groups have called for the election to be cancelled and for supporters to take to the streets. But there is little sign they will get much of a crowd.

"The police have not given any licence for protests, and it's shoot on sight," said Yusuf, sitting under a newspaper vendor's sunshade in Lagos.

"I accept the result," he added.

A planned opposition rally against rigging to coincide with the May Day celebrations on May 1 failed to get off the ground as scores of activists were tear-gassed and arrested.

Yar'Adua's inauguration on May 29 will mark the first time one civilian leader transfers power to another in Africa's most populous nation. For many Nigerians that alone is a cause for hope and they see the chaotic elections as the price to be paid for the handover.

"I don't have a problem with Yar'Adua, but the process that brought him was ridiculous," said Ola Lekan, a 35-year-old engineer in Lagos. He said he did not bother to vote because he thought the result was predetermined.

The oil producing nation is still emerging from decades of military rule, which ended with President Olusegun Obasanjo's election in 1999. A constitutional handover of power after elections, however flawed, does represent progress to many.

"Come May 29, Obasanjo will vacate Aso Rock (presidential villa). What a relief for democratisation," wrote columnist Simon Kolawole in ThisDay newspaper.

Despite his misgivings about the vote-rigging, Kolawole said he still believed the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) would have won a fair vote.

Foreign investors have said they are upbeat about opportunities in Nigeria, the second largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, despite uncertainty generated by the disputed poll. Yar'Adua has said he would continue Obasanjo's policy of free-market reforms.

OIL ATTACKS INTENSIFY

In the oil-producing Niger Delta, attacks on Western facilities and kidnappings have intensified since the poll, as armed groups seeking more autonomy for the region see an opportunity to extract concessions from the new government.

But militancy in the delta has existed for decades, and analysts expect it to subside after Yar'Adua's inauguration.

Yar'Adua, who is governor of the remote northern state of Katsina, has said he believes he has a genuine mandate to lead Nigeria, and has promised to consult with the opposition in forming his government.

Yar'Adua is thought to have run a relatively clean shop in Katsina, in a country racked by endemic looting of public resources, and many Nigerians are ready to give him a chance.

"We pray he does for Nigeria what he did in Katsina," said Yusuf, the student.

Yar'Adua will become Nigeria's first president with a university education.

Western powers have yet to congratulate him on his victory, but he embarked on a seven-nation tour of Africa this week. Washington and former colonial power Britain have both called on the opposition to take their grievances to the tribunals.

Opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari has started legal proceedings to overturn the result, but analysts say he is unlikely to succeed, partly because much of the rigging is so hard to prove.

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