Umaru Musa Yar'Adua

Umaru Yar'Adua
13th President of Nigeria
Incumbent
Assumed office May 29, 2007
Preceded by	Olusegun Obasanjo
8th Governor of Katsina State
In office May 29, 1999 – May 29, 2007
Preceded by	Joseph Akaagerger
Succeeded by	Ibrahim Sherma
Personal details
Born	1951 Katsina State, Nigeria
Political party	People's Democratic Party
Spouse	Turai Umaru Yar'adua

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (born 1951 in Katsina) is the President of Nigeria. He served as governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria between May 29, 1999 and May 28, 2007 . He was declared the winner of the controversial Nigerian general election of 2007, held on April 21, was sworn in on May 29, 2007. He is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Early life and education

Yar'Adua was born into an aristocratic Fulani family in Katsina; his father, a former Minister for Lagos during the First Republic, held the royal title of Mutawallen (custodian of the treasury) of the Katsina Emirate.. A Title to which President Yar'Adua has inherited.

He started his education at Rafukka Primary School in 1958, and moved to Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962. He attended Government College, Keffi, from 1965 until 1969, and received a Higher School Certificate from Barewa College in 1971.

Yar'Adua attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria from 1972 to 1975, attaining a BSc in Education and Chemistry, and then returned in 1978 to achieve M.Sc Degree in Analytical Chemistry.

Educational career

His first employment was at Holy Child College in Lagos (1975-1976). He later served as a lecturer at the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria between 1976 and 1979. In 1979 he began working as a lecturer at Katsina Polytechnic, remaining in this position until 1983, when he began working in the corporate sector.

Political career

During the Second Republic (1979-1983), he was a member of the leftist People's Redemption Party, while his father was briefly the National Vice chairman of the National Party of Nigeria. He contested the governorship election of Katsina state under the banner of the Social Democratic Party, but lost to Saidu Barda, an ally of President Ibrahim Babangida. In 1999, he ran for the same position and won.

In 2000, during his administration as governor, Katsina became the fifth northern Nigerian state to adopt sharia, or Islamic law.[1] 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, then overturned a year later following an appeal.

Presidential nomination

Yar'Adua

On December 16–17, 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 only 372 votes. Yar'Adua's success in the primary was attributed to the support of incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo; at the time of his nomination he was an obscure figure on the national stage, and has been described as a "puppet" of Obasanjo who could not have won the nomination under fair circumstances. Shortly after winning the nomination, Yar'Adua chose Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State, as his vice-presidential candidate.

Another view of the support he received from President Obasanjo is that he is one of few serving governors with a spotless record, devoid of any suspicions or charges of corruption. He also belongs to the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) - a powerful political block founded by his late brother, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.

Yar'Adua, who suffers from a kidney condition, challenged his critics to a game of squash in an endeavor to end speculations about his health. On March 6, 2007 he was flown to Germany for medical reasons, further fomenting rumors about his health. His spokesperson said this was due to stress and quoted Yar'Adua as saying he was fine and would soon be back to campaigning. Another report, which was rejected by Yar'Adua's spokesperson, claims that Yar'Adua collapsed after suffering a possible heart attack.

ELECTION

It was generally believed who ever became presidential candidate of ruling part (PDP) will Nigeria next president. The obvious choice was then current Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. However, he blew his chanced by his over confident and self important in event leading to re-election of the last President, O. Obasanjo. This disagreement led to Obasanjo determination to prevent Abubakar not only from contesting and throw out of the party. This led to many governors to enter the contest.

The ruling party (PDP) had the ability to raise money and better spread than other party as they control 28 out 36 states of the country.

The April 2007 election may be flawed but it can not be said it did not represent the wishes of Nigeria in general. The so called observer where too biased in condemning the election as whole. The election was never different from any other past Nigeria elections or other African countries. It worth nothing that the so call international observer never comment about election in Algeria that the president won by 86%, Egypt by 87%. Nor the election in Liberia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Also, there was only one election that was not disputed in Nigeria (12 June election in 1992). Nigeria Oppositions are notorious for disputing an election they do not win. In fact, the main opposition leader was reported to have said he would not accept the result unless he was declared winner, this was before the election took place.

A good analysis of the election did reflect the PDP won the election and in fact surfer some upset in area. It was expected to win more than 60% of the senate and House or representative, but, it managed to control about 57% of both houses.

The party also lost some states, Abia and Bauchi and could not win Lagos and Kano which it has been trying hard to win for the last two elections.

The party was well prepared and was not complacent. They took major opposition serious and campaign in every states and most local level too. The electoral body point this fact out, most of the party did not campaign nor have poster in most states and local government.

The major opposition party ANNP was hindered by his candidate, Buhari who had tried his luck now twice. He was former head of state (military) and was notorious for draconian decrees by which three drug pushers were killed by firing squad. He was not popular in the south of Nigeria due to his Islamic lineage and seems to represent the so called northern oligarchy that represented everything that was wrong with Nigeria.

The party other problem was unity, most major party were funded through the states, mostly by governors. However, the crises that rocked the party before the election split the governors apart with one governor forming his on party to contest under and another joining PDP. One governor disagreed with Buhari, and only joined his campaign much later during the election period. Buhari could have mustered enough vote in north but lacked of fund did not permit this. His predicament was made bad further by adoption Yar’Adua as PDP candidate. This move undermined Buhari major voting based as they both come from the same region. The people of that region will rather vote Yar’Adu, knowing is easy for him to become President than Buhari, at the end of the day, someone in the region will become president.

AC, the party of the Vice President was only popular on the page of newspaper. The party was too busy spinning newspapers rather than serious campaign. The party also have only one state under it to source fund from. PDP, using anti corruption squad (EFCC) kept eyes on the state finance, this must have hinder funding of the party. The VP must have known he was fighting a loosing party, it was believed he did not throw in more fund as it will lead to vanity. This may be the reason why most of their election was done on the front page newspaper mostly.

The other factor that affected AC was determination of the President then to prevent the AC candidate from contesting. He was granted dubious relief by Supreme Court in a week before the election.

PDP was help by second term performance of the then incumbent president. He introduced younger technocrat and experts into his government. They create major reform and changes to the country. It also sent message to the people of the country that is a break from the past. The past in Nigeria was corruption, nepotism and colonial zed word ‘tribalism’. The fighting of corruption and employing able people to make decision for the people raised hope and the president, though not likeable by was respected my people generally. He passed this on by campaigning vigorously for Yar’Adua and PDP. This made the party more acceptable even area where their governors were bad like Ekiti, Edo Rivers etc. He also secured SW and SE for PDP. PDP would have been in trouble have it lost SW, but ability to hold these state ensured victory at the poll. ANPP chanced dimmed when it could only split NW vote with PDP, it was crucial that ANPP and Buhari win all states in NW which they could not even win half of it. However, they did made headways in NE by gaining one state and hold there remaining states.

Presidency

See also: Nigerian general election, 2007

In the presidential election, held on April 21, 2007, Yar'Adua won with 70% of the vote (24.6 million votes), according to official results released on April 23. The election was highly controversial; it was strongly criticized by observers, and the two primary opposition candidates, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, rejected the results, believing the election to have been rigged in Yar'Adua's favor.

Personal life

Yar'Adua is married to Turai Umaru Yar'adua and they have children. He is the younger brother of former military Chief of Staff and defacto Vice President of Nigeria Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.

External links

• Official campaign website
• Parts I & II of a campaign video on Yar Adua

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