Yar’Adua’s 9th Memorial, His Last Interview with TheNEWS: “Nobody Can Hold Me Hostage”
Published ByKazeem Ugbodaga
Date6th May, 2019
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late President Umaru Yar’Adua
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Former President Umaru Yar’Adua died nine years ago (5 May 2010). Notable Nigerians, on Sunday, 5 May, paid tributes to him. Among them was one time President, Goodluck Jonathan, who was Vice President when Yar’Adua was on the driver’s seat. According to Jonathan: “On this day nine years ago, I lost a friend, colleague, brother, and boss, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He was a selfless leader who placed national interest above personal and ethnic gains. He used the opportunity he had in public service to build bridges of love, foster unity and give hope to Nigerians.”
Yar’Adua
Former President Umaru Yar’Adua died nine years ago (5 May 2010). Notable Nigerians, on Sunday, 5 May, paid tributes to him. Among them was one time President, Goodluck Jonathan, who was Vice President when Yar’Adua was on the driver’s seat. According to Jonathan: “On this day nine years ago, I lost a friend, colleague, brother, and boss, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He was a selfless leader who placed national interest above personal and ethnic gains. He used the opportunity he had in public service to build bridges of love, foster unity and give hope to Nigerians.”
When he was alive, Yar’Adua visited TheNEWS and granted us an interview. Below is the full text, exhumed from the archives:
The Man, Yar’Adua
By Ademola Adegbamigbe
Katsina State Governor, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, the presidential standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has a deceptive outlook. It is when he interacts, especially with journalists, that his real nature comes to light.
Yar’Adua has always been blunt about his health. He actually received treatment for a skin condition that had some effects on his kidneys. When he went for treatment in Saudi Arabia in year 2000, his kidney had been infected. Thus, he underwent dialysis in 2001. That, as he once explained, was the last he had.
His admirers wonder why Nigerians make so much fuss about Yar’Adua’s health. They cited world leaders who were not whole: John Kennedy, Addison’s disease (a withering of adrenal glands); Dwight Eisenhower, pulmonary problem; and Franklin D. Roosevelt who was confined to a wheelchair. Even as a contestant, Victor Yuschenko’s disfigured face, as a result of poisoning, was treated at an Austrian hospital. He is, today, the President of Ukraine.
The other issue is whether or not Yar’Adua would be a hostage to some powerful vested interests. He told TheNEWS: “Let me assure you that nobody, individual or group, will hold me hostage to do what is wrong.”
What are those problems he would tackle in the first six months in office as President. He told this magazine’s editors that he would frontally tackle the power and energy problems facing the country.
Yar’Adua was born in Katsina town in 1951. He started his education at Rafukka Primary School, Katsina in 1958 and moved to Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962 from where he completed his primary education in 1964. He attended Government College, Keffi in Nasarawa State between 1965 and 1969 and proceeded to Barewa College, Zaria for his Higher School Certificate. Yar’Adua studied Chemistry at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from where he obtained his M.Sc. degree in Analytical Chemistry.
At various times, he taught at Holy Child College, Lagos (NYSC), Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria, Kaduna Polytechnic and ABU. He also worked at Zambo Farms Limited, Funtua and was Board Chairman, Katsina State Investment and Property Development Company.
His foray into politics began when, as a lecturer, he mobilised for the defunct People’s Redemption Party. He was also a founding member, People’s Front under the leadership of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.
Yar’Adua once spoke about what shapes his world view: “Studies in Chemistry and Physics made my views and actions so profound. Here we are on Earth, only one of nine planets in the universe (though new studies are pointing at the existence of 11 planets in all). While our Earth goes around the sun in one year, the moon goes round the earth in a month. The same sun has a galaxy it goes around once in 200 million years. The galaxy we belong to has over 100 billion stars – called the Milky Way – and each one its own array of planets. Meanwhile, there are over 200 billion galaxies in the universe. So when you look at this universe, where do you place yourself? I think we all should be humble as human beings in the face of this staggering reality.”
As an austere man, he publicly declared his assets in 1999, a move that attracted praise from Nigerians. He has one plot of land in Abuja which he is developing with a N90 million facility from Unity Bank. Will he carry his unique nature to governance if he becomes president? He explains all these in this interview with TheNEWS’ senior editors.
Q: Your emergence as the presidential candidate of the PDP was perhaps against calculations within the party. For that reason, there are people who are not particularly happy. How have you been able to reconcile these aggrieved candidates?
By reaching out. I have reached out to all my colleagues. We have had excellent relationships, both personal and official, since 1999. Many of them I had known before 1999 and it was really easy to reach out and talk to my colleagues and friends. They know that the ticket can be described in another respect as a joint ticket of the governors, the PDP governors, because much earlier, we had an understanding among the PDP governors that we will examine the possibility of having one of us as a practical candidate. Since we had that understanding, we have had several meetings among ourselves as PDP governors, trying to have a consensus and trying to pitch one of us as the party’s presidential candidate. And when it came, of course, you know anybody who is aspiring for political office and you don’t get what you aspire for, from the beginning you get to know where support is especially. Since I had an excellent relationship with them and with this understanding to have one of us emerge as candidate, it was quite easy for us to reconcile as a family. That was what happened.
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