The visit of the Yar’Adua family to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Aso Villa, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) rekindled the memory of the political bond spanning over three decades.
Led by Senator Abdul Aziz Yar’Adua, the family presented to the president the portrait of their matriach, Madam Asabe, who received him during his electioneering tour of the North in 2022.
The unique woman – widow of Musa Yar’Adua, First Republic Minister of Lagos Affairs, and mother of Gen. Yar’Adua and former President Umaru Yar’Adua – passed on on September 24 last year. Life was full of ups and downs for her. But she bore all with philosophical calmness.
It was possible that Asiwaju’s ties with the Yar’Aduas started during the Third Republic when he joined the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the most formidable political caucus in the proscribed Social Democratic Party (PDP), led by the Katsina-born General.
In that era, Asiwaju Tinubu was a senator, Umaru was a governorship aspirant and Shehu was a leading presidential contender.
Yar’Adua’s bid for the highest office crumbled. He was jailed over a phantom coup. He remained a factor in the prison where the Sani Abacha regime felt the heat. The General never returned alive.
Although President Tinubu and the younger Yar’Adua, Umaru of the Peoples DemocraticParty(PDP), belonged to different political parties in the early part of this Fourth Republic, he never supported the move by the 2007 Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to challenge his presidential victory, as a mark of respect for Shehu.