May 6 2010
Yar’Adua is Dead
By Aliyu Adekunle:
• Burial today in Katsina at 2pm
After battling ill-health for about six months, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died last night at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
His remains will be flown to his hometown, Katsina, Katsina State early this morning for burial at 2pm.
The 58-year-old Yar’Adua had been battling acute pericaditis, an inflammation of the membrane around the heart, since November last year for which he received treatment at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Presidential Spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said Yar’Adua died around 9 pm and would be buried today in Katsina.
Adeniyi said Yar’Adua’s wife Turai was at his side when he died but did not say the cause of his death.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, were said to have called at the Presidential Villa around 11. 30 pm to condole the First Family.
Among those who rushed to the Presidential Villa immediately the news of the President’s death filtered in were Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, who is also an in law of the late Yar’Adua, House of Representatives Speaker, Dimeji Bankole and former Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih.
The late President was brought back to the country under the cover of darkness in February this year and speculations had abounded since then that he was still critically ill.
Yar’Adua had been held largely incommunicado since then.
The revelation by the Presidency in November that his ailment was pericaditis had introduced a new dimension to what was usually known to be the late President’s medical condition — a chronic kidney condition for at least 10 years.
The Chief Physician to the President, Dr. Salisu Banye, had said in a terse statement released by Presidential Spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi that the President was diagnosed of having “acute pericarditis”.
He had said: “At about 3pm on Friday, November 20, after he returned from the Abuja Central Mosque where he performed the Juma’at prayers, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua complained of left sided severe chest pain. Preliminary medical examinations suggested Acute Pericarditis (an inflammatory condition of the coverings of the heart).
“It was then decided that he should undertake confirmatory checks at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he had had his last medical check-up in August.”
His hospitalisation in Saudi Arabia had created political problem in the country because Yar’Adua did not transfer power to his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, as stipulated by the constitution before he left.
By the time Yar’Adua was hurriedly brought back from Saudi Arabia, the two houses of the National Assembly had passed separate resolutions empowering Jonathan as Acting President on February 9.
Even then, Yar’Adua was believed to have been brought back still badly sick as he was flown in an air ambulance.
Since then there has been a ding dong over his health, with Islamic and Christian clerics brought to the Presidential Villa in a bid to lend credence to the fact that he was still alive.
Yar’Adua’s Life and Times
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s 13th Head of State and Mutawalli (custodian of the treasury) of the Katsina Emirate was born on August 16, 1951.
He was born into an aristocratic Fulani family in Katsina. His father was a former Minister for Lagos Affairs during the First Republic. He started his education at Rafukka Primary School in 1958, and moved to Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962. He attended the Government College, Keffi from 1965 until 1969. In 1971, he received a Higher School Certificate from Barewa College and later attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria from 1972 to 1975, where he obtained a BSc in Education and Chemistry. He then returned to the University in 1978 for his M.Sc Degree in Analytical Chemistry.
Yar’Adua’s first employment was at Holy Child College in Lagos (1975–1976). He later served as a lecturer at the College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria, Kaduna State, between 1976 and 1979. In 1979, he began work as a lecturer at College of Arts and Science.
He later worked at Sambo Farms Ltd. Owned by his late brother, Maj. Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua (rtd), in Funtua, Katsina State as its pioneer General Manager between 1983 and 1989. He served as a Board Member, Katsina State Farmers’ Supply Company between 1984 and 1985, Member Governing Council of Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology Zaria and Katsina Polytechnic between 1978 and 1983, Board Chairman of Katsina State Investment and Property Development Company (KIPDECO) between 1994 and 1996. Yar’Adua served as a Director of many companies, including Habib Nigeria Bank Ltd. 1995–1999; Lodigiani Nigeria Ltd. 1987–1999, Hamada Holdings, 1983–1999; and Madara Ltd. Vom, Jos, 1987–1999. He was Chairman, Nation House Press Ltd., Kaduna, from 1995 to 1999.
In May 29,1999, He was elected as governor of Katsina State and served for eight years before he was elected as the President and Commander in-chief of Nigeria Army in April 21, 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
During the Second Republic (1979–1983), Yar’Adua was a member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). During the Transition Programme of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Yar’Adua was one of the foundation members of the Peoples Front, a political association under the leadership of his elder brother, Shehu Yar’Adua. That association later fused to form the Social Democratic Party. Yar’Adua was a member of the 1988 Constituent Assembly. He was a member of the party’s national caucus and the SDP State Secretary in Katsina . He contested the 1991 Governorship election, but lost to Saidu Barda, the candidate of the National Republican Convention. In 1999, he ran for the same position and won. He was re-elected in 2003. He was the first governor to publicly declare his assets.
In 2007, Yar’Adua’s health started failing as he suffered from kidney complications . On 6 March 2007, he was flown to Germany for medical treatment
He again left Nigeria on 23 November 2009, and was reported to be receiving treatment for pericarditis in Saudi Arabia. On February 24, 2010, Yar’Adua returned to Abuja. His state of health was unclear, but there was speculation that he was on a life support machine.
He had not been seen in public since then until he died yesterday .
Yar’Adua had been married to Hajia Turai since 1975. They have seven children (5 daughters and 2 sons). Their daughters, Zainab is married to Kebbi State governor Alhaji Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari, Nafisat is married to Bauchi State governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda.
Yar’Adua was also married to Hauwa Umar Radda, his second wife from 1992 to 1997. They have two children.
How He Became President
He was not exactly a reluctant president. While it is true that he was drafted into the presidential race in 2006 by the powers that be, he never actually complained about being forced into the race at any point. Even when his health became an issue during the presidential campaign tour of the country in 2006, he did not offer to step down. But one thing that most people were sure of was the fact that he did not seem to have any presidential ambition until it was whispered to him towards the end of 2006.
At least, when all the aspirants who were interested in becoming president were busy traversing the entire country canvassing for support and building political structures even before nomination forms went up for sale, not a word was heard from Katsina, Yar’Adua’s home state. So, when he eventually picked up the PDP Presidential nomination forms just before nominations closed in November, 2006, not a few people wondered how he intended to compete with the likes of Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Muhammadu Aliyu Gusau and Buba Marwa or Dr Peter Odili who had built formidable political machines.
But that was to be the beginning of a fairytale journey to the presidency by a reticent state governor who was at best a political neophyte when it comes to high-wire cut-throat politics. So, how did he become the president in spite of the fact that he started late and had no political machine?
One fact became immediately clear at the onset. And that was the fact that he had the backing of Olusegun Obsanjo, the incumbent president. In fact, most observers believe that this factor is the single most important force that turned him first, into the PDP flag bearer and ultimately the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in May 2007.
At that time, President Obasanjo was said to have made up his mind that a governor or a ranking senator should become the president after him. His argument was that in the United States where democracy has become the norm, it is almost always a governor or a ranking senator that goes on to become president after acquiring requisite experiences.
With Obasanjo behind him, all other things, like they say, was added unto his ambition. His predecessor recruited all the other governors behind Yar’Adua and all other candidates were literally shooed off the presidential stage: nobody was willing to take on the formidable force created by the president and the governors. Aspirants who were hitherto seen as strong contenders withdrew and those who stayed in the race were crushed at the national convention held in December, 2006.
Now, Obasanjo did not just have him nominated at the party’s national convention, he went on to become his chief campaigner. Even when Yar’Adua took ill and had to be flown abroad during the presidential campaign, Obasanjo continued to lead campaigns across the country. All PDP governors also joined the campaigns and he went on to win the Presidential elections held on the 21st of April, 2007. His ascension was as simple as that; the rest, as they say, is history.
The Late Yar’Adua’s Ill-health
When late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was running for office in 2006, the news of his ill-health was widely publicised.
He looked frail and and weak but he carried on as if all was well. And then he collapsed on the campaign trail. He was rushed abroad for treatment, no thanks to Nigeria’s poor health system. It was speculated that he was dead.
Plucked from his native Katsina State to the national level where he was unknown, there were several questions begging for answers. Who is Yar’Adua? What is wrong with him? Is he fit to be president? Can he shoulder the huge responsibilities of the office of President?
His managers were eager to stave off insinuations that he might not be capable, so they quickly moved to save him. His main backer, former President Olusegun Obasanjo rang him. Yar’Adua confirmed from Germany were he was hospitalised that he was alive.
He won the election, albeit in controversial circumstances, and was sworn in. The spectacle concerning his ill-health would continue until his death. Everything was shrouded in secrecy. His office also managed the situation rather poorly.
As governor of Katsina, Yar’Adua was said to be so ill that he was away for six months. But this could not happen without severe consequences at the national level.
Each time Yar’Adua travelled outside the country for medical check-up, his handlers had to be badgered to inform the public about the state of health of their president.
The most significant incident yet was his trip to Saudi Arabia in November last year for medical treatment. His sudden “disappearance” caused a storm. After much criticism, Nigerians were informed by his doctor that he was suffering from acute pericarditis (an inflammation of the membrane around the heart).
But there was a bigger problem: he failed to hand over properly to then Vice-president Goodluck Jonathan by sending a letter to the National Assembly on his medical vacation.
That letter would have empowered Jonathan to step in as Acting President. There were protests including that spear headed by the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) in Abuja and Lagos. Newspaper articles, radio stations, television states were flooded with views about the implications of a power vacuum. The international community weighed in with the United States and the European Union (EU) calling on Nigerian leaders to do the right thing.
The supplementary budget was flown to Saudi-Arabia for his signature. His Principal Secretary David Edevbie returned with the document claiming it was signed by Yar’Adua.
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa defended the late President vigorously, claiming he could run the country from any part of the world. All his arguments were geared towards deflating the debate on whether Yar’Adua should be declared incapacitated by virtue of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution.
In January 12, 2010, the late President broke his silence by granting a telephone interview to BBC in which he said he was getting better and would return when discharged by his doctors. The interview was hardly audible and lasted only a few seconds. Up till today, it is being debated whether Yar’Adua actually spoke on BBC.
Back home, a huge conflict was brewing. The cabinet was split; Nigerians were divided; rights groups were planning more protests; the Senate and the House of Representatives did not seem to agree on the way forward. Meanwhile, Yar’Adua’s handlers told several stories – the President was getting better, he could climb the stairs, he was exercising, he could feed himself.
In February 9, 2010, the National Assembly closed ranks and intervened. Jonathan was made Acting President.
The doctrine of necessity was cited and the BBC interview was regarded as the letter informing the legislature and indeed Nigerians that their President was on medical vacation. Not long after Jonathan stepped in as Acting President, Yar’Adua was flown back to Nigeria in the wee hours of the morning by an air ambulance.
The airport was shut down. The lights were turned off. Soldiers were deployed. The fact that he was driven to Aso Rock in an ambulance was proved that the late President was seriously ill. His return was viewed as an attempt to stop any move to declare him incapacitated.
His handlers made desperate moves to keep him in office to the extent of ridiculing the post of the President. A presidential convoy was once driven around Abuja with news that Yar’Adua would attend Friday prayers.
Shortly after that, the Chief Imam of the Abuja National Mosque Ustaz and three other Muslim clerics were invited to Aso Rock. They said the President sat down, shook their hands but did not speak. Pastors including Bishop Oyedepo were also invited. According to them, they prayed with the President and he was able to whisper an “Amen.”
Although, he successfully hung on to office, he never recovered. Yar’Adua was not seen in public from November last year until he gave up the ghost yesterday night. The true state of his health was never revealed. It was still shrouded in secrecy.
Presidents Who Died in Office
The news of the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua yesterday night evoked the memory of his predecessors who died as incumbents in Nigeria, the United States from whom the country copied her presidential system of government, Britain her former colonial master, and in other parts of Africa.
The first Nigerian head of government to die in office was Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was the first post-independent prime minister. He was killed on January 15, 1966, less than six years after assuming office. He was killed in the first military coup in the country led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu.
The man who succeeded Balewa, Major General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was similarly killed in another military coup on July 29, 1966. Ironsi who was the first indigenous head of the army had become head of the Federal Military Government after the army took over power following the death of the prime minister and other key political office holders in the first coup.
Another military head of state, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed was murdered on February 13, 1976 in a failed military coup led by Lt. Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka.
The last Nigerian head of government to die in office before late Yar’Adua was General Sani Abacha who died on June 8, 1998. Unlike the first three who died violently in coup detats, Abacha who had suffered from liver-related diseases for some years died from complications arising from the ailment.
Yesterday, Yar’Adua who had suffered from pericarditis, a heart related-disease, became the fifth Nigerian head of government to die in office.
The US Too…
In the United States, only eight of the 44 men who had governed the country had died in office. They are William Henry Harrison (April 4, 1841), Zachary Taylor (July 9, 1850), Abraham Lincoln (April 15, 1865), James Abraham Garfield (September 19, 1881), William McKinley Jnr. (September 14, 1901), Warren Gamaliel Harding (August 2, 1923), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (April 12, 1923) and John Fitzgerald Kennedy (November 22, 1963).
And 7 British PMs Died in Office…
Only seven prime ministers of Britain, Nigeria’s colonial master, died in office. They were Spencer Compton, the first Earl of Wilmington who died on July 2, 1743, Henry Pelham (March 6, 1754), Charles Watson-Wentworth, the second Marques of Rockingham (July 1, 1782), William Pitt, the younger, (January 23, 1806) and Spencer Perceval who was the only one assassinated. He was shot by John Bellingham on May 11, 1812.
Other prime ministers who died as incumbent were George Canning (August 8, 1827) and Henry Temple, the third Viscount of Palmerston (October 18, 1865).
Other Parts of Africa…
In Egypt, the last two presidents before the incumbent, Gammal Abdul Nasser and Anwar Saddat died in office. The latter was murdered by soldiers while he was inspecting a military parade in 1981. President William Tubman of Liberia, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of Congo, President Sylvio Olympio of Togo, Felix Houphoet-Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Levy Nwanawasa of Zambia, all died in office.
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