BIOGRAPHY OF ALHAJI UMARU MUSA YAR’ADUA

Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, president of Nigeria from29th may 2007- 5th May 2010. was born in Katsina Town, Katsina State in 1951 into a family active in Nigerian political and military affairs. He started his primary education at Rafukka Primary School, Katsina in 1958. He left Rafukka for Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962 from where he completed his primary education in 1964. Umaru Yar’Adua was at Government College, Keffi in present-day Nasarawa State for his secondary education from 1965-1969. He then moved to the famous Barewa College Zaria for his Higher School Certificate from 1970-1971. For his university education, Yar’Adua attended the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria from 1972-1975 where he obtained the B.Sc Education/Chemistry. He returned to the same University from 1978-1980 for his M.Sc Degree in Analytical Chemistry. Umaru Yar’Adua working career began at the Holy Child College, Lagos for the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) between 1975 and 1976. He was a Lecturer at the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria between 1976 and 1979. He moved to Katsina Polytechnic, also as a Lecturer in 1979 and was there until 1983 when he left the public service. Yar’Adua movement to the private sector started at Sambo Farms Ltd in Funtua, Katsina State as its pioneer General Manager from 1983-1989. He served as a Board Member, Katsina State Farmers’ Supply Company from1984-1985, Member Governing Council of Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology Zaria and Katsina Polytechnic between 1978-1983, Board Chairman of Katsina State Investment and Property Development Company (KIPDECO) between 1994-1996. Umaru 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 1995-1999. Yar’Adua foray into party politics began as a Lecturer when he became an active member and mobilizer for the defunct 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, the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. That association later fused to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). 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 and contested the 1991 Governorship election, but lost to the candidate of the National Republican Convention. At the inception of General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s transition in 1998, Yar’Adua founded the K34 political association which later teemed up to form the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He contested and won election as Governor of Katsina State in 1999 and was re-elected in 2003. Governor Yar’Adua is best remembered as the first Governor to publicly declare his assets and has promised to do same again at the end of his tenure. During his tenure as Governor, the state passed through an unprecedented development, culminating into profoundly transformation of the educational and health institutions, provision of rural and urban roads, electrification, water supply and agriculture. In the year 2000, he became the fifth northern Nigerian state governor to adopt sharia, or Islamic law. In 2002 Amina Lawal, a woman from Katsina was sentenced to death by stoning by a sharia court in the town of Bakori for committing adultery; the story attracted international attention. Her sentence was at first upheld by a court in the town of Funtua, and then overturned a year later following an appeal. Under his leadership, Katsina State has a surplus of N6.5billion from a near empty treasury and back log of debts in 1999. Umaru Yar’Adua won the National Primary Education Productivity Merit Award in 2004 and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Best Governor Award under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) in 2005. Yar’Adua primary health care delivery system and primary education policies became models. On 16th and 17th December 2006, Yar'Adua was chosen as the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP for the April 2007 election, receiving 3,024 votes from party delegates; his closest rival, Rochas Okorocha, received 372 votes. Shortly after winning the nomination, Yar'Adua chose Good luck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State, as his vice-presidential candidate. In the presidential election, held on 21st April 2007, Yar'Adua won with 70% of the vote (24.6 million votes) according to official results released on 23 April. After the election, Yar'Adua proposed a government of national unity. In late June 2007, two opposition parties, the ANPP and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), agreed to join Yar’Adua government... On 28 June 2007, Yar'Adua publicly revealed his declaration of assets from May (becoming the first Nigerian Leader to do so), according to which he had ₦856,452,892 (US$5.8 million) in assets, ₦19 million ($0.1 million) of which belonged to his wife. He also had ₦88,793,269.77 ($0.5 million) in liabilities. This disclosure, which fulfilled a pre-election promise he made. In 2007 Yar'Adua, who suffered from a kidney condition, challenged his critics to a game of squash in an endeavor to end speculations about his health. On 6th March 2007 he was flown to Germany for medical reasons. President Yar'Adua left Nigeria on 23rd November 2009, and was reported to be receiving medical treatment at a clinic in Saudi Arabia. On 24 February 2010, Yar'Adua returned to Abuja. His state of health was unclear, but there was speculation that he was still on a life support machine. Various political and religious figures in Nigeria had visited him during his illness saying he would make a recovery. Yar'Adua died on 5th May, 2010 at the Aso Rock presidential villa. An Islamic burial took place on 6th May 2010 in his hometown. The Federal Government of Nigeria declared a seven-day mourning period. Yar’Adua married to Hajia Turai Umaru Yar’Adua of Katsina in 1975; they had seven children (five daughters and two sons). Their daughter Zainab is married to Kebbi State governor Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari.another daughter Nafisat is married to Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda. Yar'Adua was married to Hauwa Umar Radda as a second wife...