Nicholas Shaibu and Babajide Okeowo
Former governor of old Kaduna State and an elder statesman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, has said that the late former President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was a saint as far as leadership of the country was concerned.
Alhaji Shagari was the President of Nigeria from 1979, when the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, handed over to him, till 1983, when he was toppled in a military coup by then General Muhammadu Buhari.
Reacting to Shagari’s death at 93 years of age, Alhaji Balarabe Musa noted that the deceased was a gentleman who dedicated his life and service to the unity of the country.
Musa said, “Shagari was a saint compared to leaders that came after his government. He was equally a gentleman, who served the country to the best of his ability. He ensured the unity of the country, irrespective of religious and tribal differences of the people.
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“Though his government was a civilian administration which believed in human rights protection, compared to military regime that did not have regard for human rights. May his soul rest in peace”.
Meanwhile, more Nigerians have been reacting to the death of the former president.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki took to social media platform, Twitter to mourn the elder statesman.
“My family and I join the entire nation to mourn the passing of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who led our nation during the Second Republic. President Shagari was a quintessential public servant; having served in seven cabinet positions and as a legislator. He dedicated his best years in the service of our nation and its people. May Allah grant him a place among the righteous ones in Aljannah Firdaus,” he wrote.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, also took to his Twitter handle to announce the death of the elder statesman and mourn him.
Shehu Usman Shagari was born in 1925 in the northern Shagari village founded by his great-grandfather. Shagari was made the Turaki of the Fula Sokoto Caliphate in 1962 by the Sultan of Sokoto Siddiq Abubakar III.
He started his education in a Quranic school and then went to live with relatives at a nearby town, where from 1931-1935, he attended Yabo elementary school. In 1936-1940, he went to Sokoto for middle school, and then from 1941-1944, attended Kaduna College.
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Between 1944 and 1952, Shehu Shagari, matriculated at the Teachers Training College, in Zaria, Kaduna. From 1953-1958, Shagari got a job as a visiting teacher at Sokoto Province. He was also a member of the Federal Scholarship Board from 1954-1958. He ventured into politics in 1951, when he became the secretary of the Northern People’s Congress in Sokoto, a position he held until 1956.
In 1954, Shehu Shagari was elected into his first public office as a member of the federal House of Representatives for Sokoto west. In 1958, he was appointed as parliamentary secretary (he left the post in 1959) to the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and that year he also served as the Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries.
Shagari was president in the second republic, from 1979 to 1983, after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military government before he was overthrown in a coup and succeeded by the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
