How Obasanjo Killed the Yar'aduas 2.

When Obasanjo was drafting Umaru Yar'adua into the presidential race in 2006, he was already a wounded president: at loggerheads not only with the entire country that he governed, but also with most of his subordinates. The legacies he had tried to entrench were in dire tatters and he had just suffered a humiliating blow over his Third Term Agenda, a quest to run for a third term, one above the constitutionally stipulated two. All it needed was a stamp of approval by the Senate and he spared neither time nor cash to lure the lawmakers, folks who had worn the corrupt tag all their lives. But even if his popularity had not nosedived, there was no way Nigerians could ascertain that a Fourth Term Agenda would not supplant a Third Term and beyond that...Dictatorship of any kind, civilian or military, was a tune that sounded a bit sour in the streets, Nigerians just about shaking off the trauma of the brutal dictatorships of General Babangida and General Abacha. Besides, northerners felt it was their turn to occupy the seat, their case premised on the unwritten agreement that the cause of national stability would be best served if the presidency was rotated between the north and south. Most people in his Yoruba ethnic stock were even less interested. Even if he had not alienated most of them, they were the most sophisticated group in the federation and were not likely to buy into any ethnic scheme. The result was predictable, except for cronies who were feathering their own nest from the scheme. The rejection in the Senate was devastating and Obasanjo was said to have held on to the sides of his chair trying to steady himself in the shock of the humiliation. And it was especially bitter because the party that brought him to power, the Peoples' Democratic Party, had an overwhelming majority in the Senate.
The president sulked for days unending. He had been made a laughing stock. Naturally, he didn't like parting with money and it hurt him to the doldrums he had lost a colossal sum for nothing. Colossal it was, money having been trucked into the Senate in special, capacious sacks called Ghana-Must-Go to bribe Senators. The gentlemen collected the money and then turned to give him a black eye. He had come out badly battered in what seemed a political Ponzi scheme.
 But he had to hand over power to a successor in barely a year. That was when a little smile flitted across his eyes. If they could prevent him from succeeding himself, there was virtually nothing anybody could do to stop him from anointing a successor. And Umaru Yar'adua sprang instantly into his mind. But the then governor of Katsina State was a very sick man, a fact that was well-known to everybody. He had been a heavy smoker all his life, with the attendant medical consequences, and in fact had had a kidney transplant. But that didn't matter a jot to the president. Yar'adua was his man. If he performed creditably in office, he would be credited with installing such an effective successor; if his illness hampered him from achieving much, well, Nigerians had given him a black eye, they deserve their own eyes to be gouged out. It would serve them right, very right. As military leader, Yar'adua's elder brother, Shehu, was his second in command and there was do doubt he would wield considerable influence on the younger one, gratitude being an associated factor, appreciation for choosing him from among thousands of healthy, capable northerners. Anointing Yar'adua as his successor would be a win-win case for Obasanjo.
The rest is history. Obasanjo spared no effort to make Yar;adua president. The cash left over from the Third Term bribery operations was promptly deployed to buy delegates during the PDP primaries and the general elections were a stroll for Yar'adua. It didn't matter that he collapsed during one of the presidential campaigns and had to be rushed to Germany for treatment, it didn't matter the presidential elections were heavily rigged: and even if they had not been rigged, the electorate were too ignorant to worry about the health status of an incoming leader, at any rate the electorate had hardly mattered in Nigerian elections.
So Yar'adua became president, placed under a burden that was too heavy for his health, a frame of mind and body that could hardly support lesser duties of governance in tiny Katsina State. There was no guarantee he would have lived longer if he had not become president but kidney failure and pericarditis were two things the toll of governance in a country infernally difficult and complex as Nigeria was going to exacerbate.  
   But Yar'adua was smart enough to know that Obasanjo's scheming was not out of genuine love for him. He knew he was going to die soon anyway and it wouldn't be bad if it was written he became president of his country even for a day. However he didn't die without exacting a little pound of flesh from his supposed benefactor. Obasanjo was to suffer a little hurt when the first pronouncement his protege made in office was to denounce the same electoral process that brought him to power, Obasanjo's retaliation against Nigerians. But the Nike Grange affair almost delivered a mortal blow. Recall that Nike Grange was Obasanjo's protege and was nominated by him into Yar'adua's cabinet. As Minister of Health, the professor of pediatrics allegedly flouted the president's order to return all unspent money in ministries to national coffers. Yar'adua was enraged. Obasanjo felt it imperative to intervene but the president, his protege, would have none of it. Iyabo, Obasanjo's daughter was also involved in the scandal, as senator superintending over the health ministry, but her father wouldn't care a hoot if she got her ass fried. It was Nike he was interested in saving but Yar'adua would have none of it. Yar'adua actually felt no compulsion to take orders from Obasanjo. He was of a radical persuasion, having been member of the leftist Aminu Kano-led PRP in the Second Republic while his own father was briefly vice-chairman of the conservative NPN. He had a master's degree in chemistry and in fact was the first university graduate to become president of Nigeria while Obasanjo barely finished secondary school before joining the army. He rebuffed all Obasanjo's entreaties and was to compound recalcitrance and ingratitude by bringing Nike to court in handcuffs, an act that brought Obasanjo fuming to no end. "Shehu gan ko le ba mi dan eleyi wo." An English translation of that Yoruba cliche would read: "Shehu(Yar'adua's late elder brother) would not have tried the insubordination with me."