Hajiya Turai and Hajiya Hauwa Yar’Adua are unhappy women. This is because Nigeria has forgotten the late former president, like the dust and silence of the upper shelf. Turai’s heart bleeds like a freshly bruised vein as you read. And the reason is not farfetched. Six years after her beloved husband, former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, died after a protracted ailment, Nigerians seem to have forgotten him. As the two women in his life mark the sixth anniversary of their husband’s death, they wonder if memories of Yar’Adua and his legacies as a former president and governor of Katsina State have eroded with the passage of time.
Sources close to Hajia Turai revealed that it was heartrending for her to note that memories of her husband have faded from the hearts of even his trusted aides and political associates while he was Head of State. It was even more heartbreaking to note that no newspaper or broadcast station remembered the milestone in the life of the Yar’Aduas. There was no paid advertorial in remembrance of the late president who was widely regarded as a gentleman and unpretentious statesman.
It was only the immediate family members of the former president who died on May 5, 2010, that were in London last week to hold special prayers to mark the sixth anniversary of his demise. A source in the family said they were led by Yar’Adua’s widow, Hajiya Turai and offered special prayers for the repose of the former Nigerian leader’s soul. Yar’Adua’s former wife, Hajiya Hauwa, who is also in London, said they also converged to remember the former president as part of activities marking the anniversary of his death.
