Umaru Musa Yar’Adua: Remembering a Great Statesman -By Chima Christian

12 years ago today, Nigeria lost a great president. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Compassionate. Genteel. Unassuming. He was loved.

Yar’Adua brought himself to transcend the barriers of ethnicity and religion. He was everything a complex Nigeria needed in a leader.

By acknowledging that the election which brought him to power was flawed, and making genuine efforts to improve Nigeria’s electoral process, Yar’Adua became Nigeria’s closest reflection of the word integrity.

Yar’Adua, as I remember him, had his shortcomings. Discrimination was not one of them. He would not use his exalted office to promote ethnic or sectarian agenda. His commitment to a better, united and prosperous Nigeria was never in doubt. Nepotism and incompetence, now elevated to statecraft, was far from him. He had people he could trust from all parts of the country. He didn’t claim it, but Yar’Adua belonged to everybody.

As cloudy as they were, the issues surrounding Yar’Adua’s last days did not diminish him. If anything, it is the people who saw an opportunity to exploit that got diminished. Once “all-powerful” Turai Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the famed “cabals” are now all but footnotes in an otherwise beautiful elegy.

Power is transient!

Yar’Adua was loved. He still is. To this day, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua occupies a prominent place in the minds and hearts of many Nigerians. Critics say his frail health and his untimely death contributed in part to this “hero” status. They contend that he would have been unraveled or vilified had fate not come to his rescue.

Though not to be waved off entirely, such arguments casually overlook the fact that Yar’Adua was not the first number one citizen to pass on while in office. While the nation mourned him, it couldn’t bring itself to do same for the other.

It is also instructive to note that the same people who prayed for Yar’Adua’s recovery continue to offer dissimilar prayers for another.

Yar’Adua was a good man. He was a great statesman. History will be kind to him. It is already.

Chima Christian