Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s ailing president dies

On May 5, 2010 / By Imnakoya / In Blogosphere

News from Nigeria strongly suggest Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is dead. More details later.

11 Responses to “Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s ailing president dies”

This man died a lot time ago!

By taiwo
May 5, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Does Jonathan now become the official president?

By Don Thieme
May 5, 2010 at 7:58 pm
if we thinking deeply we will see that the round peg in a round hole to become successor of(yar Adua ) is goodlucky he is the one next to him to drive nigeria to land of hope till new election come in 2011 with him i hope nigeria can move forward , pick another person may create confusion and unrest into nigeria politic again

By musa hashir uthman
May 6, 2010 at 12:03 am
My condolences on the death of Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua. He may not have been able to accomplish all that he set out to do at the beginning of his administration, but he was able show the world that Nigerians can overcome generations of misrule and plunder by former rulers and dictators, that the country is making progress in a number of important areas (including responsible governance), that endemic corruption and cronyism by politicians and powerful business people can be defeated albeit it is slow and complicated process, and that the country Nigeria is firmly on the road to peace and democracy despite the setbacks we have witnessed during his term in office.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua leaves us with the legacy of a well-respected, upright, soft-spoken but capable leader of Africa’s most populace nation. It is a first for post-independence Nigeria, and I can only wish the new president Goodluck Jonathan and the people of Nigeria all the best in the near future and over the long term.

By BRE
May 6, 2010 at 5:42 am
O.K. my friend Imankoya, my post on the Death of a Patient President is up today over at Jewels in the Jungle. I do hope that I covered the subject sufficiently and with the proper respect for a Nigerian leader that I felt was setting a good example for the nation and leaders all across the African continent. Bye-bye “Baba Go Slow”. Good Luck Nigeria with President Goodluck Jonathan and the fast-approaching national elections in 2011.

By BRE
May 8, 2010 at 10:07 am
BRE, thanks for an excellent synopsis of the recent sociopolitical dimensions in Nigeria. I’m glad you highlighted the imperial role of the first lady during Yar’Adua’s presidency and the often embarrassing shenanigans of the cohort of profiteers that capitalized on the ill-health of the president and held the nation to ransom. Such a high-level of power-play was unprecedented in the history of the nation.

However, we can not fail to highlight the role of NEXT (234Next.com), the nascent news media outfit of Mr. Dele Olojede, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former foreign editor of New York Newsday. NEXT stood out in the media coverage of the Yar’Adua brouhaha through its frank editorials and news-breaking coverage. Mr. Olojede and his crew were the first to report the former president was brain dead, and incapable of overseeing the affairs of the nation — an audacious and unprecedented play by a media house going by Nigerian standard.

See:
1. NEXT: Yar’Adua is brain-damaged: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5509847-146/yaradua_is_brain-damaged___.csp
2. Huffington Post: Nigeria’s Next ‘a paper that can’t afford to die’ http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2010/05/07/huffington-post-nigerias-next-a-paper-that-cant-afford-to-die/

Even when a mysterious voice claiming to be that of the former present was heard on BBC air waves, NEXT stood by their claim. What NEXT did more or less set the stage for the eventual swearing in of the vice president as the acting president.

In closing, as sad as the demise of Yar’Adua is, and as disruptive as the events surrounding his death was, it appears Nigeria did come out stronger, with a better grasp of its emerging democracy. However, the play-out of events in the next 12 months – during the elections, will confirm if this is indeed true.

Cheers.

By Imnakoya
May 8, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Imankoya, thanks for the reply to my comment and for the tip about the new online/print news company NEXT. I do hope that they can find the necessary financing to remain in business as was pointed out in the Huffington Post piece. Their present situation reminds me of what Andrew Mwenda is/was going through when he launched his new publication The Independent (Kampala, Uganda). NEXT’s online audience numbers as reported are simply amazing and helps to show that the media company has a bright future in Nigeria.

So what’s going to happen to “The Black Widow and The Cabal” now that their attempts to mislead the nation (and the world) about the president’s health has been exposed? Nothing?

By BRE
May 10, 2010 at 7:48 am
The ‘Black Widow’…nice appellation for the imperial first lady. Nothing is going to happen to the her and the cabal, even though the presidency plans to investigate the death of the late president.

My hope is that the nation has learned good lessons from President Yar’Adua’s death and the manner his illness was handled; the constitutional loopholes that facilitated the power vacuum need fixing at the very least.

By Imnakoya
May 10, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Well, it looks as if a lot of people inside and outside of Nigeria have many of the same questions on their minds as we have both expressed in our conversation here. Have a look at the latest African Viewpoints feature on the BBC News website re: the late president’s widow Turai Yar’Adua (The Black Widow).

African Viewpoint: Madam in the State House
by Sola Udunfa – May 11, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8673025.stm

Lord! Give the poor widow a break, at least during her period of grieving.

By BRE
May 12, 2010 at 8:00 am
It’s only too bad that he died after so much suffering, but God knows better than we all. The man meant well for the nation though, alas, he could not fulfill most of the things he promised. But can we blame him? He didn’t bring the sickness on himself.Well, the man did achieve things…at least the amnesty initiative worked miracles which his predecessors could not achieve

By Samuel Daniel
May 12, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Sam: The late president meant well for Nigeria, and he did the best he could. And as you mentioned the Niger delta amnesty deal is one of his legacies, in addition to his rule-of-law posture, a clear departure from his predecessor. In a more functional society, I wonder if a candidate with a marginal health profile as Yar’Adua would have accepted a presidential ticket the way it was thrust into his hands — very much on a platter of gold. But he did, should he?

BRE: The Black Widow brought the load on her head — highhandedly — the way she went about being the First Lady. Her likes do not deceive breaks, even in times like this. She as a matter of fact abused her connection to power, blatantly and dangerously.

By Imnakoya
May 13, 2010 at 9:45 pm