Prediction Which Shaped the Political Destiny of the Yar’Adua Family
As the story goes, the following incident happened many years ago in the palace of Alhaji Usman Nagogo, late Emir of Katsina. Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, father of Shehu and Umaru, was at the time holder of the traditional chieftaincy title of Mutawalle of Katsina(Mutawallen Katsina in Hausa language).

His son and recently-deceased President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umaru, later succeeded his father to become the holder of that title. His late elder brother, General Shehu Yar’Adua who was a former military Vice President of Nigeria and during his post-retirement life the most powerful politician of his day, held the title of Tafida of Katsina(Tafidan Katsina). Both titles – Tafida and Mutawalle make the holders concurrent ministers and dukes of the Emir’s cabinet.

One day at the palace of the Emir of Katsina, a marabout of the Emir’s had an angry exchange with the Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, father of Shehu and Umaru. In anger, he was said to have shouted that the elder Yar’adua would never again pass a night within the limits of the walled city of Katsina to which the elder Yar’Adua replied, saying that the marabout himself would never again sleep under a roof.

According to Katsina oral traditions, the elder Yar’Adua never again slept within the walled city of Katsina and only came and went from Katsina, sleeping in a house on the outskirts of town. It is not entirely clear what became of the marabout.

Much later at a peace meeting called to reconcile the feuding parties and which reportedly took place at the Emir’s palace, another of the emir’s marabouts who was apparently intent on dousing the prevailing tension jokingly asked the elder Yar’Adua to learn to take things easy. After all, said the marabout, his son was destined to be “first among equals”. Asked what he meant by that, he categorically stated that one of his sons was destined to become President of Nigeria.


The foregoing prediction it was which accounted for the late Shehu Yar’Adua’s steely resolve to emerge as President of Nigeria, a project to which he is said to have committed well over a hundred million dollars on building political party structures across Nigeria.

Indeed, his political association then known as the Peoples Front of Nigeria(later the Peoples Democratic Movement) has since 1988 emerged as the most formidable, most successful and most broad-based political platform in Nigeria. It formed the backbone of the Babangida-era Social Democratic Party (SDP) and is the major plank of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. During the days of the defunct SDP in the early 1990s, when Nigeria was a federation of 30 states and had a Senate comprised of 91 members, the Peoples Democratic Movement faction of the SDP produced 11 of the 14 SDP state governors nationwide and 37 of the 53 SDP senators in the Nigerian Senate.

Arising from the fact that the late General Shehu Yar’Adua had already served as the nation’s military Vice President, he was said to have been convinced that he was the Yar’Adua son said to be destined to become Nigeria’s President. This did not come as a surprise to many in the light of the fact that his kid brother, Umaru, the retiring and quiet type who had the strange habit of driving tractors and working on the family’s farm even at night. Few in Katsina saw Umaru as being cut out for high stakes politicking. Well, look who later became President!

One more thing. during the valedictory session held in honour of late President Umaru Yar’Adua on 11 May 2010 by the Nigerian House of Representatives, the deputy Speaker of the House in his tribute alluded to the fact of President Yar’adua’s honesty when he stated that the only house which the late president owned was actually built for him by his late brother, general Shehu Yar’Adua.

The late President thus belongs to an exclusive league of very modest former Presidents/Heads of State of Nigeria such as General Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari and General Muhammadu Buhari.

General Buhari is not known to have any foreign bank account and only had a modest bungalow in his native far northern hometown of Daura(Katsina state) at the time that he was Head of State while General Gowon actually had a house worth about 1 million naira built for him by the military government of Plateau State during the late 1980s simply because the former head of state had no house of his own to return to, years after he was was amnestied by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

For his part, Shagari was found to have been without blemish by his probing military successor while General Murtala Muhammed died with a paltry N7.22K ( seven naira,twenty two kobo) in his bank account.


Source: http://beegeagle./2010/05/14/prediction-which-shaped-the-political-destiny-of-the-yaradua-family/

sounds like tales from the arabian nights.

tpia.:

sounds like tales from the arabian nights.