Yar’Adua would’ve been Nigeria’s best President if he had lived– Dagogo

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

Dr. Farah Dagogo was a former Rivers State governorship aspirant and National Assembly member.

In this interview, he shared his perspective on Nigeria’s former President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 14 years after his died in office and why he believed he (Yar’Adua) would have been Nigeria’s best President. He also shared his views on the 2025 budget, his party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and what the President Bola Tinubu’s administration needs to do to turn things around, among others.

Excepts:

You were very close to former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, of blessed memory. You spoke glowingly of him as well. Do you truly believe his stay in office, in terms of performances, would have been reference points for other presidents if death hadn’t cut short his presidency?

Absolutely!  Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would have been Nigeria’s all-time best President. But God, in His infinite wisdom, knows why his life and stay in office had to be cut short. As a former governor of Katsina State, he understood the enormity of the job at hand and came fully prepared. His performances in his less than three years were stellar and unmatched in that duration. Let me start from my region, the Niger Delta. He came in at the height of the region’s struggle with the Federal Government. To his credit, he not only doused and nipped in the bud the then seemingly intractable issues sweeping across the volatile region, he went a step further by addressing the infractions the region had suffered consistently from previous government by setting in motion and implementing policies that tamed those concerns.

For the first time in its annals, the Nigerian government, through President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted its part in failing to develop a region that is the revenue base of the nation but was left to rot, suffer unmitigated pollution and other environmental hazards as a result of years of oil exploration and exploitation. He did not only stop at acknowledging government’s previous deaf ears to the region’s cries, he took the bull by the horn, he listened, he reconciled all warring parties and followed it up with genuine and sincere drive towards achieving both human and economic prosperity and development for the region. He set up programme, which saw thousands of youths going abroad for studies and professional training. He breathed fresh air into the NDDC and his tenure equally witnessed an uncommon revenue boom for governors of the Niger Delta. His achievements and all-round government transformation was, however, not limited to the Niger Delta, as it also spread across the country. He judiciously followed up his seven-point-agenda of food security, wealth creation, transport sector, land reforms, security, power and energy, education to the letter. With Yar’Adua, Nigeria was on the road to economic sustainability, prosperity and boom. We were marching onto the Nigeria of our dreams before death struck.

Give us an insight on the late president’s personality from your perspective and what would you say was his highpoint legacy compared to today’s contemporary Nigeria?

The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was a good man who meant well for Nigerians and the country. He was not after personal aggrandizement! There was a communication number he provided for me. Almost every midnight, he would call me on that line and shared his dreams and visions for the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large. He told me with all equanimity that none of the regions in the country would have accepted what the government had been doing to the Niger Delta without resorting to self-help and that’s why he was very determined to right the wrongs of the past in his little way. He was solemn and sober about it. We were in constant communication until some few months before he eventually caves in to the powers of death. Even as death was lurking around, he never gave up hope on contributing his quota towards making Nigeria great and bettering the lives of its citizens. The man was truly an enigma. He was remarkably unflappable in spite of every second challenges and chaotic circumstances that come with governing Nigeria. He was more focused on the solutions. Let me tell you something that transpired when the then Aaron Team, set up by the President to chart a course for the speedy development of the Niger Delta region, met with him. I was the youngest member of that team under the Chairman of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. The team had Major General Luke Kakadu Aprezi (rtd), former Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Okhai Mike Akhigbe (rtd) among others as members. We were a 12-member team.

Remember, I told you earlier that he understood the enormity of his job as the president and came prepared. He further proved this at that meeting held at his private bedroom in Aso Villa. President Yar’Adua demonstrated how motivated he was concerning the Niger Delta debacle. He brought out an already prepared Map detailing his developmental plans. It was so insightful that we, the Aaron Team, were dumbfounded. We were all astonished with that honest disposition of purpose displayed by the late president.

The late president’s blueprint was even more insightful and far-reaching than what the Aaron Team was proposing. There and then, a consensus was agreed with the Aaron’s Team aligning themselves with that brought forward by the late president. I just want you to understand how passionate he was about developing the Niger Delta. He didn’t just rest on his oars that he had set up a working team, he still went out of his extremely busy schedule to see how he could contribute to its success. All was on course, before his sickness crept in that eventually led to his death.

The late president was a man of honour whose words were his bond. I think one of his greatest legacies would also be the restoration of the hope of the common man in the judiciary. Under his watch, the courts regained their freedom and spoke truth and dispensed justice in the real sense of it. The courts without any encumbrances handed down verdicts that cancelled political victories even though his party, the PDP was at the receiving end. Of course, there were pressures and angst among faithful who wanted some form of executive intervention and continuation of what was applicable in the eons. But, late President Yar’Adua, being a man of strong commitment to the tenets of democracy, stood his ground. He was not vindictive as it didn’t take him long to release the over N10 billion Lagos State local government councils’ funds withheld by his predecessor. He was the only president that did not increase fuel price. Rather, he reduced it per litre from N75 to N65 in less than a month in office in June, 2007. He was also the country’s first ever president to declare his assets. He equally ensured the successful dredging of River Niger, which was abandoned for over 40 years. Just like many Nigerians and foreigners alike, who have come to know and understood the man, that Wednesday of 5th May, 2010, when President Yar’Adua had his last breath, will forever remain indelible and etched in our hearts. That day was personally emotional for me and as a human, I equally had to bow to the emotional flow of nature. With his passage, I lost a mentor, a friend, a confidant, a father. As for Nigerians, while they lost a son on that day, recent events in our political climate, have shown that what we actually lost that day, in the words of the revered Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was a sun! He was simply the best.

Let’s talk party politics and the road to 2027, the Court of Appeal gave a ruling that sent Samuel Anyanwu packing as National Secretary of the PDP, replacing him with Ude-Okoye and that seems amenable to majority of the PDP members. Do you think the party is gradually getting its house in order? Also, would you support the idea of forming alliances?

Let me join the majority in swimming with this tide. It is a welcome development. However, it is not yet uhuru. I hope all legal wranglings will now be put to bed and let the party make appreciable progress. Like I have said before, the root cause has to be uprooted and treated fully. I have pointed out some of those recently. We can learn from it and device workable solutions. And that leads me to your follow-up question. The PDP has the capability to spearhead the charge towards dislodging the ruling APC, but will need the support of others which can be termed alliance. The whole idea is to give Nigerians a viable alternative. Give them a better country than what they are experiencing now, make their lives better, ease their sufferings, sorrow and anguish. The cries are loud, the people want something different. And the PDP can deliver on that front. But the PDP has to put its house in order and prove to Nigerians that it can be entrusted with the country’s future once more.