The POLITICIAN 1000

By Paul Okade Jr
On the 5th of May 2010 Nigeria lost one of its
greatest sons. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may
only have led the nation for 24 months, but in that
short space of time he exemplified leadership in its
purest form and gave the nation a glimpse of what it
could become. He was a selfless and a humble politician
whose sole desire was to better the lives of all
Nigerians irrespective of their religious dispositions or
geopolitical origins.
President Yar’Adua was born and raised as a Muslim,
but he never allowed his religious beliefs to
interfere with his politics because he understood that
all Nigerians whether they’re Muslim, Christian,
Traditionalists, Witches, Wizards, idolaters or any
other belief are all human beings who require housing,
healthcare, education and all other things necessary for
human existence.
This is the reason why racism, tribalism and all other
ethnic divisions are truly the pastimes of the ignorant
because irrespective of the colour of your skin, the
language you speak or the religious belief you adhere
to, we are all still God’s children and we all breathe
the same air, drink the same water and aspire for the
same things in life. We all want to see our children
succeed, our elderly parents retired comfortably, and
for wealth and health to be the proverbial “cushions”
under our feet.
There’s nothing worse than an educated bigot, and
such people should never be allowed to ascend the ladder
of national politics. Tribalism and ethnic divisions
shouldn’t have a place in Nigerian politics, because
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every Nigerian should embrace and welcome each
other and seek to find a common national expression.
This is why Sport is so important? Because if there’s
one thing about sport, especially football, it is that
for those 90 minutes that those 22 players are on the
pitch, people forget their religion, language and skin
colour and become completely engrossed in the game.
Even the most ardent racists in Great Britain that hate
all things “Black”, suspend their racial prejudices for
those 90 minutes, and if an African player happens to
be the person who scores the winning goal, then as far
as they’re concerned that player is no longer Black, he
has now become one of them, a full British national
lol.
The day a match is lost however due to a mistake
made by a Nigerian player, the same British public
who were calling him British a moment ago will
quickly remind that player of his Nigerian ancestry.
Such is the power of sport. People get emotional over
their football teams, and in Europe Football is fast
becoming a religion and the players are the Prophets.
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, our 13th President
loved his country. He was a man of exceptional integrity
and the first ever Governor in the history of Nigeria
to declare his assets prior to assuming political office.
He was born into a political family, his late Father
was a former minister of Lagos in the first Republic
and his older brother the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua
was one of Nigeria’s first progressive politicians and
leader of the Social Democratic Party, an organisation
which sought to end military rule in Nigeria.