Once upon a time, Nigerians got it right by electing a president that was for the people. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was one of the best things that happened to my country back in 2007 after the controversial reign of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Right from 1960 when Nigeria got her independence till 2007, we have had very corrupt and fraudulent governments. It was all wars, coups, and power games between the military generals until democracy came to the rescue.
Infact even during the democratic era, the suffering of the people continued and we all prayed for a messiah to rise up and restore peace to the nation. At that time Obasanjo had completed his 2 tenure rule (8 years altogether) but he still orchestrated a constitutional amendment to extend his presidency beyond the two term limit.
It was a good thing that the National Assembly rejected it, but it goes on to show how power hungry and fraudulent our leaders were. So it felt like a big relief for the country when Yar'Adua came in to do the exact opposite of what other leaders had been doing.
There are leaders who rule with iron fists, and then there are those who govern with quiet dignity. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was a man whose brief time in office left a huge mark on the conscience of Nigerians, proving that impact isn't measured by years in power, but by the depth of one's commitment to the people.
It was from Yar'Adua I learnt that leadership is more about service than pleasure because here was a man who despite his privileged background as the son of a Fulani chief, carried himself with the humility of a servant leader.
I was still very young at that time but I felt the impact of his incredible government. Ask any Nigerian civil servant or military personnel about the Yar'Adua era, and you'll likely see a smile in their faces because he completely transformed the Nigeria wage structure which was terrible at that time.
Before Yar'Adua, the minimum wage was a cruel joke, barely enough to sustain a single individual let alone a family. In 2008, he championed a new national minimum wage policy that dramatically improved earnings for workers across all sectors. For the first time in years, teachers could afford to pay their children's school fees. Police/Army officers could feed their families with dignity. Civil servants didn't have to choose between transportation and medicine.
It was not even really about the money, he knew how to serve the people. Without using a gun, this man brought peace to many regions of the country, especially the Niger Delta region that was in chaos because of the oil and gas war.
It was at this time that you can be walking on the street and just pick money on the ground. But these days nobody looses their money anymore because everything has become tuff. This was when students felt happy about being future leaders of this nation.
Sadly his presidency lasted just under three years before illness claimed him in 2010. But in that short window, Yar'Adua accomplished what many eight year administrations failed to achieve. To many, he is considered the standard for a democratic governance.
