PRESIDENT UMARU MUSA YAR'ADUA, THE FINAL EPILOGUE!

A life eclipsed, the sun sets, the birds chirped their final goodbyes, the swan song played; and so it is that Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is no more! Snatched by the cold hands of death which has foreshadowed him for quite sometime now; sending him from one Germany hospital to Saudi Arabia's another and to some other hospitals in the world in search of a possible cure for his cocktail of illnesses? Doctors finally gave up all hopes and last November 2009, sent him home to die amongst his people. Icheoku notes that ironically, it is a thing of pride that the late Nigerian president did not die in a foreign hospital bed; like so many other Nigerian high-ups and officials who take pride in dying among 'not-so-caring' strangers in foreign hospitals in foreign lands. For this patriotic act, Icheoku commends him and his family for not suffering Nigeria the shame that their president died in a foreign hospital surrounded by strangers speaking strange tongues and acting funny?

Upon his return last November 2009, a blanket of secrecy was thrown over him by his ever domineering, overbearing and protective wife, Hadjiya Turai, who shrouded him from everyone including his mother and his former vice president; people who did not see him to even bid their final goodbyes? This enveloping secrecy web made it impossible for Nigerians to actually appreciate how long gone and debilitated their president was; until late Wednesday May 5, 2010 night, at about 9.00pm Nigeria local time, when he yielded his ghost and the vultures of death took it away to a land and place so far far away, never to return. Icheoku prays that President Umaru Yar'Adua will now finally gets the rest which has eluded him for quite sometime now; chiefly caused by the cabal which held him hostage as a pawn in their game of chess and used him, his name and his office to feather their nests. Icheoku did not know Mr. President very well; but suffice it to say he exuded some humility and meekness; admitted we strongly objected to his imposition on the people of Nigeria by the Otta deity, Olusegun Obasanjo. Like all mortals, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has now completed his own 360 degrees of the cosmic journey called life, and as he is interred and mourned by his family, friends and the Nigeria state, Icheoku says, lucky are those who die and their body were properly disposed, and mourned in death. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua falls within this lucky class of the departed and may his soul rest in peace, Amen!

But who is President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua; the man noted for absconding from his duties in Aso Rock office of the presidency of Nigeria and for over 100 long days, without handing power over to anyone including his vice president. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was hitherto, an unknown quantity in Nigeria national political terrain; and a very much discreet governor of Islamic Sharia Northern Nigeria State of Katsina, before Olusegun Obasanjo foisted him on Nigeria as president in May 29, 2007. But shortly after his inauguration his recurring ailments of emblematic kidney and enlarged heart returned with some what vengeance and kept him debilitated until yesterday, when all the life-support gadgets keeping him alive for several months now, suddenly had no life to support anymore as the president breathed his last. President Umaru Yar'Adua was 59 years old; a son of a former minister and brother to late Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, President Umaru Yar'Adua was born in Katsina in 1951. A major in chemistry with a master's degree in analytical chemistry, he taught class at the university before joining politics. He was elected governor of Katsina State in 1999 and for a second term in 2003; before his nomination by the ruling party PDP for the presidency and subsequent imposition on Nigerians, as Nigeria's president? President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was married to wife, Turai, with whom he had six children; he also had two children from a previous marriage or rather, a former paramour?

For the records, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was the first university-educated executive president of Nigeria since independence; discountenancing Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Nigeria's first ceremonial president, a Lincoln USA University graduand? It is also instructive to note that late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was the fifth Nigeria President/Head of State to die in office;Tafawa Balewa was killed in a 1966 army putsch, Aguiyi Ironsi was killed in counter-coup of July 1966, Muritala Mohammed was killed in 1976 Buka Suka Dimka led coup attempt, the midget of Kano Sani Abacha was poisoned in 1998 and now President Umaru Yar'Adua; the only one to die of natural causes of Churg Strauss Syndrome, by kidney problems, heart problems and acute pericarditis which was accelerated by an overbearing wife's selfish power intoxication, which made her keep him away from his other family members, friends, government officials as well as the Nigerian people. Turai maintained this false imprisonment of the president for more than 150 days until the cold steely hands of death plucked him away from her, his family and the Nigerian people. President Umaru Yar'Adua was also the first and the only president of Nigeria to ever publicly declare his assets.

Hopefully, one of his most memorable remarks, "Our collective goal is to deliver for our children a Nigeria better, stronger, more peaceful, more secure and more prosperous than we met it," will now serve as his hopeful and enduring legacy which Icheoku hopes, shall be lived out in those succeeding him in office? The intention is commendable and its implementation, a laudable cause. President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will be remembered by different people for so many different reasons:- to his wife, as a loving and caring husband; to his children, a doting father who rose to become president; to his people of Katsina State, a former governor and kinsman; to Islamic Sharia Northern Nigeria, a devout Islamic zealot who ushered in and laid the ground work for sharia laws in northern Nigeria; to his government officials, the get-along president that never barked out orders; and to the Nigerian people, an imposed president who earned the acronym, Mr. Go-Slow or Baba Slow for the very slow paced with which he approached governance. To Icheoku, we shall remember him as that collaborator who conspired or agreed to be used by Olusegun Obasanjo to effect the worst election outcome or 'selection' ever in Nigeria. The late president admitted this much after his swearing in when he opined that his election was flawed? We thought he would go a step further in calling for fresh elections, but he never did and his government was hounded by this credibility gap until he expired late Wednesday. Luckily death is a universal debt which every living thing owes and now, President Umaru Yar'Adua is debt-free. Icheoku wishes him glorious transition into eternity; and to his family, friends and Nigerians in general, the fortitude to bear the loss. May his Allah accept his soul in their paradise, adieu President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua!