Topic: Umaru Yar'Adua

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (16 August 1951 – 5 May 2010) was the President of Nigeria and the 13th Head of State. He served as governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 28 May 2007. He was declared the winner of the controversial Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007. He was a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). In 2009, Yar'Adua left for Saudi Arabia to receive treatment for pericarditis. He returned to Nigeria in 2010, where he died on May 5.

Yar'Adua was born into an aristocratic Fulani family in Katsina; his father, a former Minister for Lagos during the First republic, held the royal title of Mutawalli (custodian of the treasury) of the Katsina Emirate, a title which Yar'Adua inherited. He started his education at Rafukka Primary School in 1958, and moved to Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962. He attended the Government College at Keffi from 1965 until 1969. In 1971 he received a Higher School Certificate from Barewa College. He attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria from 1972 to 1975, obtaining a B.Sc. degree in Education and Chemistry, and then returned in 1978 to achieve an M.Sc. degree in Analytical Chemistry.

Yar'Adua married Turai Umaru Yar'Adua of Katsina in 1975; they had seven children (five daughters and two sons). Their daughter Zainab is married to Kebbi State governor Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari. Their daughter Nafisat is married to Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda. Yar'Adua was married to Hauwa Umar Radda as a second wife from 1992 to 1997. They had two children.