Yar’adua: One long year after

His almost three- year stint as Nigerian president was legendary. Yar’adua’s attention to details no matter how minute, earned him the name of Baba Go slow. But his administration has carved a niche for itself through his unprecedented respect for rule of law and due process.

After his departure, the country he led even from his death bed experienced so many betrayals, as some would say. His erstwhile deputy, Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as president. The cabinet he formed was dissolved and some of his policies were controversially reversed. Above all, the power rotation that brought him to power was trampled upon.

The new cabinet was peopled by many faces and all the Yar’adua’s men, who were said to have caged him, were sacked. It was a new regime, new policies and new strategies. The then all powerful first lady, Hajiya Turai Yar’adua was humbled in the president’s hometown, Katsina.

The entire president’s men, popularly known as the cabal (courtesy of Professor Dora Akunyili); were equally humbled as they all quietly vanished into oblivion. Despite his go-slow approach to national issues, Yar’adua is today remembered by many, if not all Nigerians for good or bad.

In the Niger Delta for instance, if the political class seem to forget him, the youth, particularly those that ventured into militancy, actually would not. Courtesy his amnesty programme; hundreds of them are currently living across the shores of this country, undergoing one technical training or another. The oil producing region has to celebrate him for establishing the Niger Delta ministry.

Yar’adua deconstructed power. He was not intoxicated by it, a fact that even his critics had attested to. He operated within the realm of the law. He didn’t pay lip service to the rule of law and due process he preached. The courts regained the freedom they lost during his predecessor’s tenure. They handed down verdicts that cancelled political victories even though his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the victim.

Despite his ill-health, he pioneered laudable projects across the country. He initiated the dredging of River Niger, a project that was abandoned for decades. He started the reinvigoration of the abandoned rail system. He brought Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to head the Central Bank, thereby saving the country from a looming financial crisis.

He was bold enough to reverse President Olusegun Obasanjo’s decisions considered to be against the national interest.  He saved the country’s three refineries from being auctioned to businessmen, who could not establish theirs.  The nation’s comatose telecom giant, NITEL was not auctioned at least during his time.

He fought corruption in his own ways. He pioneered the policy of returning unspent funds to the national treasury at the end of the fiscal year even though the policy regrettably died with him. He prosecuted and jailed those believed to be above the law. His party chieftain, Chief Olabode George was convicted during Yar’adua’s adminitration. He did not create political enemies who he needed the anti-graft agencies, notably the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to humiliate as Obasanjo did.

After his assumption, he saved the jobs of over 160, 000 federal workers pencilled for sack under various pretences. Not only that, he released the N10 billion Lagos State local government councils’ funds which Obasanjo sat fat on despite court orders. Yar’adua went ahead and reversed the increment of Value Added Tax (VAT) from 10 percent to five as well as the hike in fuel price from N75 to N65.

Despite these high sounding achievements, Yar’adua faltered when he ordered the prejudicial murder of Muhammad Yusuf and hundreds of his Boko Haram followers and even innocent people in Borno, Yobe and Bauchi states. The massacre generated outcry from as far as the United Nations in New York. The dark episode was investigated by the presidential panel headed by his National Security Adviser (NSA), retired General Abdullahi Sarki Muktar but the report remains to be seen.

The Boko Haram phenomenon had since assumed a national dimension but the misguided youths were not as lucky as the Niger Delta militants who waged a war against the government and are today rewarded with amnesty.

On the political scene, Yar’adua created a new vista where his daughters got married to serving governors. At a time, some of them were even used to woo opposition governors into the fold of the ruling party. Apart from his poor Boko Haram handling, Yar’adua, unlike his predecessor, was apparently incapacitated in handling the carnage on the Plateau. The rest is now history. After all, he was only human.