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| Alh. Umaru Musa Yar'adua |
Umaru Musa Yar’adua was the president of Nigeria. He called himself the Servant Leader.
BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS
Yar’adua as a boy.
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua was born on the 16th of August 1951 in Katsina, Katsina State, northern Nigeria. As at that time, there was no Katsina State because it was formed in 1987 from Kaduna State. He belonged to the predominant Fulani ethnic stock (please note that this is different from Hausa ethnic group and it is very wrong to refer to Yar’adua as Hausa, the Hausas are a different group altogether). Katsina is a predominantly Muslim state with sizeable Christian population, it has historically being one of the most important commercial centres in northern Nigeria. Below are photos of Yar’adua’s father:
KATSINA STATE.
The Yar’adua family has always been one of the most influential and powerful not only in Katsina State but all over the region. His father, Mallam Musa Yar’adua, was the Minister for Lagos during the First Republic (1963-1966) under the presidency of Nnamdi Azikiwe and the prime ministership of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He was also the holder of the royal title of Mutawalli (Mutawallen Katsina) which meant he was the Custodian of the Treasury of the Katsina Emirate. His son, Umaru, would later inherit this title. The late President was born into an affluent family that was however regarded for its prudence and simplicity.
EDUCATION
Umaru Musa Yar’adua was enrolled at the Rafukka Primary School in 1958 and from there, he later moved to the Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962. For his high school education, he was at the Government College, Keffi (1965-1969) and got his Higher School Certificate from the prestigious Barewa College, Zaria, Kaduna State in 1971.
From 1972 to 1975, he was a student at one of Africa’s largest universities, the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State where he bagged a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and Chemistry. By 1978, he was back to bag his masters degree in Analytical Chemistry.
TEACHING CAREER
Yar’adua worked at the Holy Child College in Lagos State from 1975 to 1976 as a teacher. Later, he secured a job as a lecturer at the College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, Kaduna State from 1976 to 1979. In the year 1979, he continued his lecturing career at the College of Art and Science until 1983 when he veered into business, making his mark in the corporate world.
LATER CAREER
In 1983, Yar’adua became the first General Manager at Sambo Farms Limited, Funtua, Katsina State, a post he would hold until 1989. In the period between 1984 and 1985, he was a member of the board of the Katsina State Farmers’ Supply Company.
From 1978 to 1983, he was a Member, Governing Council of the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria and the Katsina Polytechnic within the same period. In 1994,he became the Chairman of the Board of the Katsina State Investment and Property Development Company (KIPDECO) and was in the position till 1996. His other roles are as follows:
-Director, Habib Nigeria Bank Limited (1995 – 1999)
-Director, Lodigiani Nigeria Limited (1987 – 1999)
-Director, Hamada Holdings (1983 – 1999)
-Director, Madara Limited, Vom, Jos, Plateau State (1987 – 1999)
-Chairman, Nation House Press Limited, Kaduna (1995 – 1999)
LOVE, FAMILY, MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN
In 1975, the late President Yar’adua got married to the love of his life, Hajia Turai Umaru Yar’adua and their marriage produced seven children (five daughters and two sons). Nafisat got married to Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda while Zainab got married to Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari, the governor of Kebbi State. From the year 1992 to 1997, he was married to Hauwa Umar Radda and their marriage produced two children.
From the year 1992 to 1997, he was married to Hauwa Umar Radda (pictured here) and their marriage produced two children.
-His brother, Abdul’azeez Musa Yar’adua, a retired colonel in the Nigerian Army is gunning for the governorship of Katsina State in 2015. He is popularly known as Audu Soja and is shown below.
ENTERING POLITICS AND BECOMING GOVERNOR
Born into a family that wielded immense political influence (his father, Mallam Musa Yar’adua had been the Vice Chairman (National) of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN), Yar’adua’s sojourn into politics went as far back as Nigeria’s Second Republic in 1979 (the republic came to an abrupt end in 1983) when he was a member of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP).
When General Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s military president, came with his wuruwuru idea of a transition programme, Yar’adua was one of those that established the People’s Association, a political group that was led by his elder brother, the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’adua. This group would later become the Social Democratic Party, SDP (which was funded by the military government and other individuals like Shehu Musa Yar’adua, Arthur Francis Nzeribe and MKO Abiola). By 1988, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly and being a member of the party’s national caucus and the Katsina State SDP secretary, he was one of the most important officials of the party. In December 1991, Umaru Musa Yar’adua made his first shot at ruling his state. He contested for the governorship of Katsina State but unfortunately for him, he lost to Alhaji Saidu Barda , a politician who ran on the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC). Barda was also a friend of the military president, Babangida. One of the factors that also contributed to Umaru’s defeat was that his elder brother was aiming at the presidency and was not wholly in support of his younger brother’s ambition.
But Yar’adua did not give up, he would lick his wounds of defeat and then re-strategize. In the year 1999, he contested again for the same position and he won with 66.5% of the votes, defeating Alhaji Jinadu Mamuda Yantumaki of the All People’s Party to limp home with 32.5%.
In 2003, he contested again and won. It must be noted that Yar’adua was the first governor to declare his assets in public. But it must be highlighted that although many Nigerians were not really aware of went on during his governorship, it was not always an easy one. For instance, in August 1999, some members of the Muslim Shiite sect went on a rampage with jerrycans of petrol, setting seven hotels and a church on fire chanting Allahu Akbar as they went about with their destruction unhindered. Why? They said they were protesting against the sale of alcohol in Katsina on Friday.
Governor Umaru Musa Yar’adua later appealed for calm and urged everyone to leave in peace and harmony, and he ordered the police to beef up security around churches in the metropolis to pre-empt further attacks. In 2000, under Yar’adua’s governorship, Katsina became the fifth country in the north of the country to adopt sharia (Islamic law). In 2002, the same state gained global notoriety when in 2002, Amina Lawal, a woman from Funtua, was sentenced to death by stoning by a sharia court for committing adultery. Another court in Funtua upheld the decision but in 2003, it was overturned following local and international outrage.
As state governor, he stated that sharia was the solution to electoral frauds. He said: “…the implementation of the divine law of Sharia had made it most imperative to begin the campaign of cleansing our souls from any malpractice, be it election related or otherwise.” However, he was not a governor without enemies. In August 2000, his political foes sourced N300 million to impeach him from office using the Katsina State House of Assembly. He was accused of awarding mouthwatering contracts to companies of his friends and selling 1000 presidential campaign 504 Peugeot cars bought by his late brother Shehu in 1994 to the Katsina State House of Assembly, parastatals and ministries in the state at outrageous amounts. He was also accused of gross inefficiency and being despotic.
BECOMING NIGERIA’S PRESIDENT
In 2006, the night of 16th till the morning of 17th of December, politicians from all over the country converged in Abuja to select the presidential candidate for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The elections were to come up in April 2007. With the heavy support of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar’adua managed to secure the votes of 3,024 PDP delegates, beating Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha to a distant second place with just 372 votes. Yar’adua’s emergence at that time came as a big surprise to many, and that was because very few Nigerians outside Katsina State even knew him. He was very simple, kinda reclusive and was later viewed as a puppet of Obasanjo. Not long after he won the nomination, he selected the Governor of oil-rich Bayelsa State, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to be his vice-presidential running mate. His major opponents for the presidency were Major-General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
There were some other factors that worked in Yar’adua’s favour. One was that he was one of the very few state governors that were considered clean and corruption-free, having being given a clean slate of record by the nation’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). His late brother, Shehu Musa Yar’adua, was also the deputy to Obasanjo when he was the military head of state.
THE LATE SHEHU MUSA YAR’ADUA.
Although he won the elections, it was not an easy one for Yar’adua as he started manifesting some health problems barely even before the elections started. As at 2007, he was battling a kidney disease but his handlers tried their best to keep a lid over the matter. In fact, in order to douse tensions, he challenged anyone who said he was not fit to a game of squash. But the façade could not be kept for too long because on the 6th of March, 2007, he was hurriedly flown to Germany when his health took a turn for the worse. The rumour mill went on an overdrive and all sorts of tales were flying about, one even had it that the presidential aspirant collapsed due owing to a likely heart attack. But from his bed in Germany, Yar’adua debunked all these tales, stating that he was doing well and would be back to his campaigns.
THE YAR’ADUA PRESIDENCY
He was back and on the 21st of April, 2007, the presidential elections were held. When the results were released on the 23rd of April, 2007, Yar’adua won with a convincing 24.6 million votes representing 70% of the electorate. Fierce criticisms were fired from the opposition with very loud shouts of rigging allegations. Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP and Atiku Abubakar said that there were heavy forms of rigging to favour Yar’adua all over the country. Later, Yar’adua himself would admit that the elections that brought him to power were far from being free and fair, and he was set on electoral reforms.
Following his victory, Yar’adua called for a government of national unity which would include members of the opposition parties in his presidency. By June 2007, some of the opposition parties agreed to be a part of his regime, and these were the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA).
General Buhari of the ANPP and Atiku Abubakar filed petitions before the courts asking that the results of the Nigerian presidential elections of 2007 be declared null and void owing to allegations of fraud. However, on the 26th of February 2008, the petitions were rejected. The duo vowed to pursue their cases right up to the Supreme Court but all efforts to knock Yar’adua out of Aso Rock failed.
On the 28th of June, 2007, Yar’adua became the first Nigerian leader to publicly declare his assets. The declaration revealed that he had the total sum of ₦856,452,892 million naira in assets (about $5.8 million) out of which ₦19 million (over $100,000) belonged to his wife, Hajia Turai. The sum of ₦88,793,269.77 (about half a million dollars) was also declared in liabilities. Yar’adua had promised during his campaigns that should he be elected President, he would declare his assets so as to set an example for other Nigerian leaders and also serve as a move to deter corruption. His assets of over N800 million was widely considered meagre by Nigerians and many saw him as ‘poor’ in relation to his what his other peers could boast of. But Yar’adua did not seem to be a man given to so much wealth accumulation, greed and avarice.
THE YAR’ADUA CABINET
On the 26th of July 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua sworn in a new cabinet made up of 39 ministers (including two from the opposing ANPP). Some members of Yar’adua’s cabinet were:
-Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Vice President
-Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
-Professor Dora Akunyili, Information and Communication Minister.
-Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, Agriculture and Water Resources Minister.
-Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, Health Minister.
-Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, Petroleum Resources Minister.
– Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Ministers: Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), Michael Aondoakaa.
-Chief Ojo Maduekwe, Foreign Affairs Minister.
-Alhaji Jibril Maigari, Foreign Affairs Minister 1 (State)
-Senator Adamu Aliero, Federal Capital Territory Minister.
-Tanimu Yakubu, Chief Economic Adviser to the President.
-Dr. Hassan Lawal, Works and Housing Minister.
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT YAR’ADUA
-Umaru Musa Yar’adua was the first president of Nigeria to be a university graduate.
– He loved the game of squash.
