By Abiola Olawale
Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on Saturday recounted how Hajia Dada, the mother of the former president of Nigeria, the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua, helped him attain the height he had attained in life today.
Jonathan, who paid a condolence visit to the Yar’adua family over the death of their matriarch, said if not for Haija Dada, he wouldn’t have become the Vice President of Nigeria and eventually the President of Nigeria.
According to the former president, the late Dada technically made him who he is.
He said: “This woman technically made me who I am”. Her death is touching to me. It was her son who brought me as his running mate and without this woman, you wouldn’t have known my name. So she was like my mother and this is like the death of my mother.
“It is a very sad moment for all of us. I travelled on Monday because I was going to Kigali. When I arrived in Addis Ababa, our head of mission there told me about the sad news.
“On behalf of myself, my team, my community and my state, I extend our heartfelt condolences to the Yar’Adua family and, indeed, to the good people of Katsina State.
“She was a mother that we lost, but Allah has blessed her. To live that long shows that Allah has accepted her.
“She was a good woman, she was a blessed woman, she brought children that contributed significantly to the development of our great nation.”
The New Diplomat reports that late Dada, who was also the mother of late Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters during the Obasanjo military regime, late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’adua and Senator Abdul Aziz Musa Yar’adua, the Senator representing Katsina Central Constituency and current Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, died in the evening hours of Monday, September 2nd, 2024, after a brief illness at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina.
She died at the age of 102 years.
