Farah Dagogo is a former Rivers State governorship aspirant and National Assembly member. In this interview, he shares his perspective on Nigeria’s former President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua 14 years after his death in office and why he believed he (Yar’Adua) would have been Nigeria’s best President. He also speaks on the 2025 budget, his party, the Peoples 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 the 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 the 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 a 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 were, 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 letters. Yar’Adua’s Nigeria was on the road of economic sustainability, prosperity and boom. We were marching onto the Nigeria of our dreams before death struck.
Peoplesmind
