Umaru Yar'Adua

Umaru Yar'Adua

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (born August 16, 1951 in Katsina , † May 5, 2010 in Abuja ) was a Nigerian politician and President of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010 .

Life

Umaru Yar'Adua came from a well-known Fulbe family from northern Nigeria. His father, Musa Yar'Adua, was minister for the then capital Lagos after independence and also held the honorary post of treasurer (Mutawallen) of Katsina . Umaru Yar'Adua's brother, General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua , who was convicted under the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha and died in prison in 1997, was vice president from 1976 to 1979 and one of the richest Nigerians before his imprisonment.

Yar'Adua studied chemistry at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria from 1972 and then worked for two years as a teacher at a university in Lagos. From 1976 to 1983 he taught as a lecturer in Zaria, and later at a polytechnic in his hometown of Katsina. From 1983, Yar'Adua withdrew from the academic environment, took over the management of private companies and took on various board memberships.

Political career

Early political activity

In the 1970s, Umaru Yar'Adua was a member of the progressive People's Redemption Party , which also included the writer Chinua Achebe . As early as 1991 he ran as a member of the now defunct Social Democratic Party for governor of the state of Katsina , but lost to Sa'idu Barda in the controversial election . After the death of the military dictator Sani Abacha in 1998 and the lifting of the party ban in 1999, Yar'Adua founded the political group "K34", which later joined the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

governor

In 1999 Umaru Yar'Adua ran again for governorship, this time as a candidate for the PDP, and won the election. In 2003 he was re-elected.

Umaru Yar'Adua has been described as a cautious and reluctant governor in domestic and foreign media. Yar'Adua disclosed his financial situation to voters before the 1999 and 2003 elections. There are numerous anecdotes about Yar'Adua that are supposed to testify to its alleged humility and incorruptibility. In addition, Yar'Adua was one of the few governors of the 2003-2007 electoral period against whom the corruption authority Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not investigate.

During Umaru Yar'Adua's tenure, Amina Lawal was sentenced to death after the introduction of Sharia in the predominantly Muslim state of Katsina, which was to be stoned to death for adultery . Although Lawal's case attracted international attention, Yar'Adua did not stand up for it. However, at this point in time, interference on the basis of the Nigerian constitution, which provides for the separation of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary, would not have been relevant either, since the legal process (to the constitutional court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) had not yet been exhausted. The judgment was then already overturned in the lower instance. It should also be mentioned that parts of the Sharia were already applied during the colonial times of Great Britain in northern Nigeria (e.g. in family law) and only the criminal law of the Sharia was newly introduced in the state of Katsina. The general legal opinion, however, was that the Sharia criminal law was incompatible with the federal constitution and that every judgment would have been "cashed out" by the Federal Constitutional Court at the latest.

Presidential election

In December 2006 Umaru Yar'Adua was elected from 20 candidates as the PDP's presidential candidate for the April 2007 elections. Although not originally considered the most promising candidate, Yar'Adua, who was supported by outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo , received 3,024 votes from party delegates, while his greatest opponent Rochas Okorocha received just 372 votes. As a running mate he elected Goodluck Jonathan , the governor of Bayelsa . The two PDP candidates represented both the Muslim north and, through Goodluck Jonathan, the Christian south ( Niger Delta ). The reasons for Obasanjo's support were likely because Yar'Adua was one of the few Nigerian governors who was not accused of corruption . According to widespread opinion, Yar'Adua was more of a " straw man " for Obasanjo, who could no longer be elected after two terms in office.

On April 23, 2007, the Nigerian Electoral Commission declared Umaru Yar'Adua the winner of the election with an official 70% of the vote. Yar'Adua rejected allegations of manipulation by the opposition and calls for the elections to be canceled. He invited his political opponents to participate in a government of national unity. Yar'Adua took office on May 29, 2007.

Yar'Adua, who had suffered from Churg-Strauss syndrome for several years , contracted pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium ) in November 2009 and has since been in Saudi Arabia for treatment. On January 22, 2010, the Nigerian Supreme Court instructed Congress to decide within 14 days whether Adua could continue to serve as he had to seek regular medical treatment. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has been named Executive President to help bridge the period of power vacuum. Information minister Dora Akunyili had campaigned for the appointment of Jonathan despite the fierce opposition in parliament. On February 24, 2010, Umaru Yar'Adua returned to Nigeria from treatment. He died on May 5, 2010 in his presidential villa.

Familiar

Umaru Yar'Adua was married and had four children.

Web links

Commons : Umaru Yar'Adua  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ NZZ : Chemistry teacher and President of Nigeria, April 25, 2007
2. ↑ BBC News : The candidates to be Nigeria's leader , April 19, 2007
3. ↑ KAS : “Preliminary decision in Nigeria: ruling and opposition parties have chosen their presidential candidates” , December 20, 2006
4. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger : Nigeria's election winner rejects criticism of the election, April 25, 2007
5. ^ The Washington Post: President Umaru Yar'Adua dies after long illness ( Memento of May 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , May 5, 2010.
6. ↑ Der Bund : Modest Alt-Marxist, April 24, 2007