For over two decades, the oil-producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria was in turmoil. At a time, the region was synonymous with violence as foreign nations warned their citizens working as expatriates in Nigeria to stay off the region due to the unrest caused by years of militancy.

Located in the south-south zone of the country, the region, comprising of Delta, Edo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ondo, Abia and Imo state, produces crude oil which has been serving as the major means of Nigeria’s economic since 1956 when oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri (Bayesa state). Sales from crude oil make up around 90% of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria and the country’s annual budget is largely dependent on earnings from the oil sales.

While Nigeria rakes in billions of dollars from oil revenue, the communities where the oil is sourced wallow in penury and environmental degradation. The discovery and exploration of oil in the Niger Delta has caused more pains for the people than the anticipated gains. The exploration of oil in the region leads to mortality of fish and decimated their population, rendering the people redundant and unable to earn a living as they were mainly fishermen. This formed their agitation and demand for compensation as well as control of the oil wealth, the demand led to a confrontation between activists from the region and Oil Companies operating in the region as well as the Federal Government.

The agitation which started as a peaceful protest later snowballed into a full blown armed conflict and years of unrest following the execution of a renowned activist and playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other men from Ogoni in Rivers State by the Military government of General Sani Abacha in November 1995.

After Saro-Wiwa’s death, the agitation took a new dimension as ‘youths’ in the region took up arms and formed groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) led by Henry Okah; the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) founded by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari; the Niger Delta Youth Peace Movement under the leadership of Siloko Siasa and many other splinter militant groups. The groups had a similar template for carrying out their operations – abduction of foreign oil workers to demand millions of naira as ransom, bombing of oil installations and destruction of lives and property, they also engaged in oil bunkering and were regularly stealing a significant amount of oil. They made good fortunes from the militancy and used proceeds from the sale of the stolen oil to acquire new arms. Heavily armed with sophisticated weapons, the militants constantly engaged the Nigerian military deployed to the region in gun battle on the Niger Delta creeks.

The conflict cost the government dearly, as much as one million barrels of crude oil per day estimated to be about N8.7 billion as at May 2009 was lost. According to the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, over 1000 lives were lost in 2008 alone, while 128 persons were allegedly kidnapped within one year (January 2008 to January 2009).

The conflict went on until 2009 when President Umar Musa Yar’Adua took special interest in the unrest and implemented the Amnesty Programme that restored relative peace. Yar’adua took over from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in May 2007 after serving as Katsina State Governor for eight years. Two years after, he interceded in the Niger Delta unrest with an amnesty programme which was top on his seven-point agenda. The programme required the militants to surrender their weapons and in return, they would receive a presidential pardon, education, training and access to a rehabilitation programme. Yar’Adua opened a window for a period of 60 days for the agitators to surrender their arms in exchange for amnesty, and over 30,000 ex-militants were disarmed in the first, second and final phases while 130,877 arms were surrendered in Bayelsa, 82,406 in Rivers and 52,958 in Delta.

Yar’adua’s government also created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs on September 10, 2008 to promote and coordinate policies for the development, peace and security of the region. Under the amnesty programme, thousands of ex-militants and indigenous people of the region have graduated from various trainings in and outside the country, some are on fully-funded scholarships in private and government universities in Nigeria and overseas. While others are in vocational training schools.

Explaining the reason for proclaiming amnesty, Yar’adua said in October 2009: “With a view to engendering lasting peace in the area, we proclaimed a general amnesty and granted unconditional pardon to all those who had taken up arms as a way of drawing attention to the plight of the people of the Niger Delta.”

Born on August 16, 1951, Yar’adua’s father Musa Yar’adua served as a federal minister during the First Republic 1960–1966, while his elder brother, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, was Vice President to Obasanjo when he served as Military Head of State from 1976 – 79.  Shehu died in prison in 1997 while serving 25 years jail term after he was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to overthrow Abacha’s government.

Yar’Adua bagged his bachelor and master’s degree in chemistry from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna state and taught in the College of Arts, Science, and Technology in Zaria from 1979 to 1983 when he left the classroom for the corporate world. In 1991, he contested for governor as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but lost to Saidu Barda, the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC). He would later win the 1999 governorship election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

When Obasanjo picked him as the anointed PDP’s presidential candidate to succeed him in 2007, many believed it was an attempt to compensate the Yar’adua’s family for the death of Shehu, his elder brother.

During the 2006/2007 presidential election campaign, Yar’adua’s health was a subject of rumour as his running mate Goodluck Jonathan (who later succeeded him) and President Obasanjo were more active at the front line of the campaigns while Yar’adua was constantly absent.

By 2009, it was no longer a rumour that Yar’adua’s health was failing as he was constantly in and out of hospital. By late November 2009, he left Nigeria for Saudi Arabia for treatment of heart and kidney problems, his absence from the country without handing over to Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, sparked a flurry of controversy, media debates, and protests from several groups across the country. The Save Nigeria Group (SNG) headed by Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly in Lagos, was one of the leading voices among many other activists that demanded the formal transfer of power to Jonathan.

The National Assembly voted to have Jonathan serve as acting president until Yar’Adua returns to duty on February 9, 2020. Yar’Adua returned to Nigeria on February 24, 2010, but Jonathan continued as acting president while Yar’Adua continued to recuperate, but lost the battle and died on this day May 5, 2010 at the Aso Villa after spending barely three years in office.

Despite inheriting a conflict that has been on for over a decade, Yar’adua’s government, though short, made a remarkable impact in reaching a cease-fire agreement with the agitators which brought peace to the region and also boosted the nation’s economic fortune.

“There is balance of evidence to suggest that though Yar’Adua administration was brief, it had a revolutionary impact in the denouement and resolution of the Niger Delta conflict and by extension, the sustainable development of the oil-bearing enclave,” S.O. Aghalino of the Department of History, University of Ilorin wrote in the Global Advanced Research Journal of History, Political Science and International Relations published in 2012.

Yar’adua’s spokesperson Segun Adeniyi described him as a humble man who “didn’t allow power to change him”.

On the 10th anniversary of his death, his Vice President and successor Goodluck Jonathan wrote: “President Yar’Adua no doubt left enduring legacies in his wholehearted devotion to the ideals of democracy, respect for peoples’ rights, freedoms and reason for living as well as a commitment to the rule of law and laws of equity and justice.”

“He was committed to creating lasting peace and prosperity within Nigeria’s own borders, and continuing that work will be an important part of honoring his legacy,” Barack Obama then US President said in 2010 in his condolence.

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