The Giant: A reflection on Musa Yar’adua

Having been born by one of those who, by any standard, can be regarded as one of the finest crops of first generations of post-independence Nigeria, the late Mutawalle Musa Yar’adua, the Minister of Lagos Affairs in the 1st Republic), one may say that Umaru had little or no business to toil the path he […]

Having been born by one of those who, by any standard, can be regarded as one of the finest crops of first generations of post-independence Nigeria, the late Mutawalle Musa Yar’adua, the Minister of Lagos Affairs in the 1st Republic), one may say that Umaru had little or no business to toil the path he followed – that of advancing the course of an ordinary human. If it were someone else, Umaru would have gone to read courses that could fetch him high positions in the Central or any of the Commercial Banks, Oil Sector, Diplomatic Circles or other areas that would make him be part of those, on whose hands, the Nigerian economy circulates. Instead, he opted to read chemistry and became a teacher, lived most of his life as a teacher, identified himself with teaching and teachers, and died nursing an ambition of returning back to teach after completing his public life. As it is said, man only proposes and Allah took the life of the fine gentleman on Wednesday, 5th May, 2010 when he was yet to complete his public life.
Yar’adua was born on 16th day of August 1951, and started his primary education at Rafukka Primary School in 1958 before moving to Dutsin-ma Boarding Primary School in 1962. He attended Government College Keffi from 1965 to 1969. In 1971, he received a Higher School Certificate from Barewa College. He also attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1972 to 1975 and obtained a BSc in Education and Chemistry, and then returned in 1978 to acquire an MSc. degree in Analytical Chemistry.
Upon graduation, his first employment was at Holy Child College in Lagos (1975-76) during his primary assignment as a Corper, where he taught chemistry. After NYSC, he was employed as a lecturer at the College of Arts, Science, and Technology in Zaria, Kaduna State, between 1976 and 1979. In 1979, he began working as a lecturer at the then newly established Katsina College of Art and Science, remaining in this position until 1983, when he left to start working for his elder brother (the late General Shehu Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory) as the pioneer General Manager of the General’s Sambo Farms, a position he occupied between 1983 and 1989. His performance on the job was unknown to many, one of the finest cases of transparency that one can feel proud to associate Nigeria with. During the period he was at Sambo Farms, I and one of his ‘children’, Engineer Muttaqha Rabe Darma were class-and roommates at Bayero University, Kano. I used to at times go with Muttaqha to Funtua on a visit to his ‘father’. Through such contacts, I was able to establish that sales of products in the farms were so coordinated and transparent that no one could take a product without paying. In fact, even to take products to the General’s Parents, the General Manager insisted on paying and issuing receipt so that no one can hide under the guise of taking products to the family house in Katsina and divert them into personal use. Because of his utmost sincerity, the Late General entrusted the responsibility of managing much of his vast wealth on the late Umaru.
The late president served in many capacities in the Old Kaduna State and Katsina State when the latter was carved out of the former. 
During the Second Republic (1979-83), Yar’adua was a member of the leftist PRP, while his father was briefly the National Vice Chairman of the NPN, another clear sign of his exceptional commitment to human service. During the Transition Programme of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Umaru Yar’adua was a member of the 1988 Constituent Assembly and 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 Yaradua. 
With the return of civil rule in 1999, Umaru ran for the governor of Katsina State and won. He was the first governor to publicly declare his assets, which indicated that what he was able to accumulate was not commensurate with the many positions he had occupied earlier, which showed that he never used any of the positions to enrich himself. The records of his 1st term in office were so outstanding nationally that it became very easy for him to be re-elected in 2003. When he was leaving office in 2007, his sterling performance was such that Katsina State boasted of having one of the best infrastructures in the country.   In May 2007, following he won election, Yar’aadua was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the position he held until his death on May 5, 2010.
I came to Yaradua’s attention when appointed Senator Adamu Aliero as the Minister of Federal Capital Territory in November 2008. The Senator had sought his advice on how to re-position the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, the main Agency that manages the entire physical infrastructure in the FCT. The late president had me (as a Professor of Environmental Management) in mind but only advised Senator Aliero to interact with me and see if I was worthy of being appointed to head the agency. Based on that advice, Senator Aliero interacted with me and, fortunately, found me worthy and thus appointed me as its chief executive in March 2009, a position I held until the death of the president. This again showed the Giant in the Man. Ordinarily, someone who believed in people like me, he would have instructed Senator Aliero to appoint me directly, but he did not. He allowed due process to prevail. The rest, as they say, is now history.
Such were the qualities of the gentleman, who, to me, has touched my life both personally as a human being and nationally as my governor and president.
May Allah continue to forgive him and bless him and make Aljannatul Firdausi his final abode.
 Excerpted from a keynote address by Professor Mashi, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) University of Abuja, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the death of Nigeria’s former president<[email protected]>