The Life and Times of President Umaru Yar’Adua

Five months after a serious heart condition kept him away from the public eye, Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has died at age 58.

Presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi confirmed Yar’Adua’s death at 9 PM Wednesday night at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, adding that his remains would be flown for an Islamic burial at his home state of Katsina Thursday afternoon.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan - who has been acting president since February – has announced seven days of mourning, saying "Nigeria has lost the jewel on its crown." Jonathan will be sworn in as head of state at around 0700 GMT. He is expected to appoint a new vice president and serve out the remaining part of Yar’Adua’s term until the next elections in April 2011.

In addition to his heart problem, Yar’Adua was known to suffer from a chronic kidney ailment. In November 2008 he was flown to King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia and remained there before returning to Nigeria two months ago.

Yar'Adua leaves behind his wife Turai, five daughters and two sons.

Born into an aristocratic Fulani family in Katsina, Yar’Adua was elected president in a controversial 2007 election that was disputed by opposition parties after he won a 70 per cent majority despite having been a relatively obscure governor of a remote northern state before his presidential nomination.

Critics said Yar’Adua was shooed in by the then outgoing president, Olusegun Obasanjo, as a “puppet” who would enable him retain influence after leaving office while upholding the North-South rotation of the Nigerian presidency. His supporters said he was handpicked by President Obasanjo because he was one of the few serving state governors with a clean record and no association with corruption.

Yar’Adua’s father, Musa Yar'Adua, was a cabinet minister in the 1960s while his older brother, Major-General Shehu Yar’Adua, served as Nigeria’s vice president between 1976 and 1979. Shehu died in prison in 1997, two years after being sentenced to life for calling on Nigeria’s then military ruler Sani Abacha to restore civilian rule.

The late president had a master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry from Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna State, Nigeria, and was a university lecturer before joining the corporate sector in a series of lucrative directorships.

He became politically active in the late 1970s but was first elected into office in 1999 as governor of Katsina before becoming president of Africa’s most populous country in 2007.

He was Nigeria’s first university educated president, and the first to declare his assets publicly, revealing that he was worthy US$5.8 million. His landslide election, though marred by claims of fraud, marked the first time power was being transferred from one civilian leader to another since independence in 1960.

Yar’Adua’s death however stokes division in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which has an unwritten agreement that alternates the presidency between the Muslim north and the Christian south.

Yar’Adua was a northerner, and he has served only one term. His successor, Jonathan, who hails from the south, has not ruled out a possible run in 2011, yet influential northern leaders have demanded that the PDP fronts a northerner as its presidential choice to serve out what would have been Yar’Adua’s second term.

Yar’Adua’s greatest legacy is arguably in the troubled oil-rich Niger Delta region, where militant attacks against oil installations cost Nigeria millions in lost revenue. Yar’Adua offered an amnesty to the militant groups and offered to negotiate long term solutions to their grievances, which included complaints that local communities were not benefiting from the region’s abundant oil wealth.

The main militant group in the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said it was saddened by Yar'Adua's death.

In another message of condolence, US President Barack Obama lauded Yar’Adua as a man of "profound personal decency and integrity". [PE]

Pirates attack French vessel off Nigerian coast

PARIS – Pirates hijacked a French boat and took its nine crew members hostage in the latest attack in some of the world's most dangerous waters off oil-rich southern Nigeria, the boat's owner said Monday.

The captain of the Bourbon Leda was able to speak with the boat's owners Sunday and said that all nine crew members were unharmed, according to a statement by the company, Bourbon, which provides specialist boats for the oil and gas industry. It said in the statement Monday that it was working to free the crew.

Piracy is rampant in the waters off Nigeria with attacks and hostage-taking linked to militants pressing the Nigerian government to send more oil proceeds to the region.

Bourbon spokeswoman Stephanie Elbaz said she believed the nine — five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one person from Cameroon and one from Indonesia — remained on the supply vessel. She said she had no information about the number of pirates or their demands.

It was the second time in just more than two months that a boat owned by Bourbon was attacked and those aboard taken hostage.Seven French and three African oil workers seized Oct. 31 from a tugboat off the coast of Cameroon were freed 11 days later. French officials said no ransom was paid then.

The latest attack comes as pirate attacks increase, particularly off the coast of Somalia. A French navy vessel thwarted two attacks Sunday by heavily armed Somali pirates on cargo ships in the dangerous Gulf of Aden and captured 19 of them.

Breaking News all Nigerians

Adams Oshiomole has won...

US Election Map

Election results by state
Come on there are no RESULTS, OBAMA WON Period!!!!!!

The (contiguous 48) states of the country are colored red or blue to indicate whether a majority of their voters voted for the Republican candidate (George W. Bush) or the Democratic candidate (John F. Kerry) respectively. The map gives the superficial impression that the "red states" dominate the country, since they cover far more area than the blue ones. However, as pointed out by many others, this is misleading because it fails to take into account the fact that most of the red states have small populations, whereas most of the blue states have large ones. The blue may be small in area, but they are large in terms of numbers of people, which is what matters in an election.
We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states have been rescaled according to their population. That is, states are drawn with a size proportional not to their sheer topographic acreage -- which has little to do with politics -- but to the number of their inhabitants, states with more people appearing larger than states with fewer, regardless of their actual area on the ground. Thus, on such a map, the state of Rhode Island, with its 1.1 million inhabitants, would appear about twice the size of Wyoming, which has half a million, even though Wyoming has 60 times the acreage of Rhode Island.

Sell Obama to us

This is a voice from Africa asking Americans not to mess with Barack Obama. If you don’t want him, please sell him back to us, we are ready to buy him at any cost. His father came to America and gave America the best of gifts any nation can have. He came to America for education, which he paid for, of course in cash and had to part with part of himself, a sound analytical, positive change-making son. It is obvious that Obama is a precious gift to America. All other nations, including Africa, his ancestral home can only wish they had a worthy son like Obama.

If you think it has not cross our Nubian hearts on how we can possibly buy our son back if we can, then you don’t really know what Obama worth. This Negro son of change can beat a broad way where there is none, he can filter through the thick fog of America idols like the Clintons and deprive the Bushes of their dinner and set a new path for the Americans out of the bushes the Bushes have directed them thus. He is not just a phenomena, he is the ONE. He is a gift to America, the best Africa can offer the West, the best we can offer the world. For a new world, for a phenomena change, this is our contribution.

Since the days of JFK no president has distinguishes his heritage, despite his beginning or setbacks and climb into the ways of all Americans like Obama. The self acclaimed maverick, MacCain will tell you that the old Vietnam wasn’t even half as tough as the turf or is it tongue of Obama. Sen. MacCain has never been so humiliated before by a little man who is red and yellow behind the ears before, the Republicans have never had it so raw and tough. If the truth were told, Obama is the ONE, and no one can denial that.

Can we have him back? Is the cry that tugs our hearts as Africans? But without regrets we offer him up as our contributions, our gift to the making of a new world of equality, a new world of economic advancement. Take Obama and step into a new era of technological re-awaken; take Obama and have a new wave of industrialisation; take Obama and have America and the world climb beyond the Moon into a new world of unpredicted energy source; take Obama and have a new world of peace and global scientific challenges. It is not because he is black, it because of what he is made of, and what magnitude of change he is capable of.

Many great sons and daughters of Africa are scattered all over the earth, growing the gardens of other nations without caring for theirs in Africa. Obama is just one of them. They carry in their blood the innovations and ingenuity that erected the pyramids of Egypt, the walls of Ethiopia; and originated the mathematics and chemistry of the people of Chem (black Africans). Without them the world would have still be living in caves. They are world changers, revolutions makers; consult your history book if you have any doubt. With their abilities they have build nations and kingdoms. Their blood accounts for the foundations of many nations. It was a sacrifice Africa paid to develop the world. Obama is yet another sacrifice, take him and cause a quantum CHANGE in the world yet again.

One thing still bothers us though. Could it be that Africa gave it best and the world didn’t even notice? Could it be that in the black which house all colours, there is a gift that is capable of a quantum change and the world wouldn’t even appreciate? If that is the case, sell Obama back to us and we will buy him at any price, even it cost the last drop in our blood. Americans must learn to appreciate this precious gift now before it is too late. Few days from now, by midday of Tuesday 4th of November, it will be too late. Americans please, you must act now. Embrace this CHANGE and the rest of the world will fight to catch up with you, say the nest hundred years?

www.sistershouseofesteem.org/obama1.html

Mozambique’s ex-President Joachim Chissano bangs $5 million

Chissano was awarded $5m (Sh330 million) for a retiring African Head of State who did the best job of leading his or her country. In addition to the Sh330 million, Chissano will also receive an income of $200,000 (Sh13.2 million) presumably to buy groceries and beer for his friends, and $2 million (Sh132 million) to donate to good causes.
The Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim, as every man and his dog in Africa must surely know by now, quit his job at British Telecom where he was earning £45,000 a year, and founded the pan-Africa mobile phone company, Celtel. Not too long ago he sold it for £1.7 billion (Sh234 billion).
However, we are here today because of what Annan and Mo said at the London event where Chissano was announced the first recipient of the prize.
Annan said that ex-African leaders do not benefit from lecture tours as Western statesmen like Bill Clinton, and are vulnerable to the temptation to plunder their nation’s treasuries as a “retirement fund”.
Mo added that when an African leader is coming to the end of his term, there are only three choices — steal enough money to fund their retirement; manipulate the rules to stay in office indefinitely; or to live in relative poverty. His prize, he said, was an incentive for African leaders to give up their act.
I think these good gentlemen have got this the wrong way round. First, the majority of us earn less than one-tenth the salaries and allowances of African presidents.
But when we retire, we don’t all live in poverty. Quite a few retire to homes they borrowed from banks to build, and are able to live on their pension and savings. Why should African presidents who earn several times more not be able to do better?
Secondly, not all Western leaders are like Clinton either. Most disappear into oblivion. Only those who have something interesting to say get large speaking fees. Which is why Nelson Mandela, despite serving only one term, attracts so much interest.
Likewise, most African presidents are paid far more than American and other world leaders, yet it is mostly ours who amend constitutions so that they can die in office.
So, in order not to live in poverty when they retire, African leaders need to do something simple while in office — do their job well, and not steal from the taxpayers.
In fact, if we think Mandela is too rare an example, why don’t we try Zambia’s ex-President Kaunda? He didn’t steal, but still he doesn’t go to bed hungry. And he is internationally well-regarded.
WE SHOULD NOT LEAVE international speaking engagements without reflecting on what happened a few days ago to Shahid Malik, Britain’s International Development minister. Mr Malik also has the distinction of being Britain’s first Muslim minister.
Malik was stopped at Dulles Airport in Washington DC on Sunday on suspicion that he might be a terrorist. His hand luggage was analysed for traces of explosive materials.
Malik said he was particularly annoyed because a similar thing happened last year when at JFK Airport in New York, despite the fact that he was a keynote speaker at an anti-terrorism event organised by the FBI, Muslim organisations in New York, and the Department of Homeland Security, the super ministry that President George Bush created to fight terrorism after 9/11.

A Story from Africa

Asese, the man of steel
Nobody knows to this day how he came to like drink so much; all that is known of him was that he was cursed by the gods to labour. And like everything done by the gods they cursed him with enough strength to labour. He was the type of a man who wakes up in the morning and starts to work until the sun is down. They said the gods cursed him with labour so once the sun is up the curse starts manifesting until the sun goes down.

He was called Asese, the man of steel, because he never gets tired. He has enough strength to work across the clock. Like many others in village, he was a farmer. Nobody can compete with him in anything that has to do with farming. He has the largest farm in the nineteen villages in the province of the king has it was called.

They said he was cursed by the gods when he drank the palm wine that belongs to the gods. He was returning from his first farm as a boy on a very hot after. Asese was very hungry and was almost fainting by the time he got to the shrine of Elelule, the sun god. While he was resting in the hut by the shrine he saw a man sacrifice a keg of fresh palm wine to the gods.

Asese watched the man turned his back and went for the wine. He drank it all. It was then the gods placed a curse on him. And since it was the sun god, the curse is only active during the day. The man works like a machine. Once it is day, he can’t rest. He has to work from dawn to dusk, from Monday to Sunday, without stop. He doesn’t get tired, he doesn’t get sick. He was indeed a man of steel.

He must walk once the sun is up, this was his curse; the only moment of peace in his life was at night. Asese has acres of farm lands. He cultivates all manner of crops. He has plantations in every forest. This made him very rich. But like every man cursed by the gods, he looks demented and weird, for he was a drunk. He never looks sober. But no matter how drunk he maybe, once the sun is up he will start working like a machine.

One day the king called all able bodied men in the 19 province to come and work in his farm. Men from various villages gathered to help the king. Asese was drunk when he arrived and it was already noon. He looked at the plot of land and divided it into two. He picked half and before the men could plough half of the half he gave them he was through with his half.

When he lifted up himself he greeted the king who was with the men who were drumming for the workers and asked if he can take more wine. The king was dumbfounded. He has never seen a man like that before. He looked weird but he was indeed a man of steel. And like most king who love bravery and strength, the king gave the weird looking man his daughter and large acres of land to farm.

Asese the man of steel married to the king’s daughter. It wasn’t a thing of shame to the king, but that of pride. Besides, if Asese can but be sober he is the richest man in the province by virtue of his products from the farm. The king was a wise one, he only gave Asese his daughter so that he can have the wealth of Asese which he cannot manage.

Asese’s fame grew far and wide after he married the king’s daughter. The pretty woman did everything to make him sober, all to no avail. She soon gave birth to four children, a girl and three healthy sons, but Asese was far from being sober. This man of steel doesn’t have to buy drinks, even though he can pay for it. All he does is go to the source of drinks, the very tree where the wine tapers are tapping their wine and drink from there.

As his fame and wealth grew so were his enemies. Gruesome men who don’t want to hear of him. Men who would allow him cultivate a land and then declared that it belongs to them. Of course he was a man of steel. He is a drunk not crazy. He always has a way of getting back what belongs to him.

However, one day Asese, the man of steel went to farm as usual, stop by palm trees where wine tapers are tapping their wine and empty kegs of wine into his stomach. He got to the farm and started to walk as usual. But the man of steel wasn’t steel any more. He started vomiting blood and those closed by rushed him home. Before he could get home he died. The man of steel was poisoned. He drank from the wine that was used as trap for him by his enemies.