President Umaru Yar'Adua

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (born 1951 in Katsina) is the President-elect of Nigeria. He has served as governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria since May 29, 1999. He was declared the winner of the controversial Nigerian general election of 2007, held on April 21, and is due to be sworn in on May 29, 2007. He is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Yar'Adua was born into an aristocratic Fulani family in Katsina; his father, a former minister for Lagos during the First Republic, was also the Mutawallen (custodian of the treasury) of the Katsina Emirate.

He started his education at Rafukka Primary School in 1958, and moved to Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962. He attended Government College, Keffi, from 1965 until 1969, and received a Higher School Certificate from Barewa College in 1971.

Yar'Adua attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria from 1972 to 1975, attaining a BSc in Education and Chemistry, and then returned in 1978 to achieve M.Sc Degree in Analytical Chemistry.

His first employment was at Holy Child College in Lagos (1975-1976). He later served as a lecturer at the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria between 1976 and 1979. In 1979 he began working as a lecturer at Katsina Polytechnic, remaining in this position until 1983, when he began working in the corporate sector.

During the Second Republic (1979-1983), he was a member of the leftist People's Redemption Party, while his father was briefly the National Vice chairman of the National Party of Nigeria. He contested the governorship election of Katsina state under the banner of the Social Democratic Party, but lost to Saidu Barda, an ally of President Ibrahim Babangida. In 1999, he ran for the same position and won.[2]

In 2000, during his administration as governor, Katsina became the fifth northern Nigerian state to adopt sharia, or Islamic law. In 2002 Amina Lawal, a woman from Katsina, was sentenced to death by stoning by a sharia court in the town of Bakori for committing adultery; the story attracted international attention. Her sentence was at first upheld by a court in the town of Funtua, then overturned a year later following an appeal.

On December 16–17, 2006, Yar'Adua was chosen as the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP for the April 2007 election, receiving 3,024 votes from party delegates; his closest rival, Rochas Okorocha, received only 372 votes.Yar'Adua's success in the primary was attributed to the support of incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo;at the time of his nomination he was an obscure figure on the national stage, and has been described as a "puppet" of Obasanjo who could not have won the nomination under fair circumstances. Shortly after winning the nomination, Yar'Adua chose Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State, as his vice-presidential candidate.

Another view of the support he received from President Obasanjo is that he is one of few serving governors with a spotless record, devoid of any suspicions or charges of corruption. He also belongs to the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) - a powerful political block founded by his late brother, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.

Yar'Adua, who suffers from a kidney condition, challenged his critics to a game of squash in an endeavor to end speculations about his health. On March 6, 2007 he was flown to Germany for medical reasons, further fomenting rumors about his health. His spokesperson said this was due to stress and quoted Yar'Adua as saying he was fine and would soon be back to campaigning. Another report, which was rejected by Yar'Adua's spokesperson, claims that Yar'Adua collapsed after suffering a possible heart attack.

In the presidential election, held on April 21, 2007, Yar'Adua won with 70% of the vote (24.6 million votes), according to official results released on April 23. The election was highly controversial; it was strongly criticized by observers, and the two primary opposition candidates, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, rejected the results, believing the election to have been rigged in Yar'Adua's favor.

* Yar'Adua is married to Turai Umaru Yar'adua and they have children.
* Yar'Adua is the younger brother of former military Chief of Staff and defacto Vice President of Nigeria Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.