A Meditation on Two Deaths

    
    Umaru Yar'Adua             Sani Abacha

During my lifetime, I have consciously witnessed the death of two Nigerian presidents. The first was General Sani Abacha, a military dictator, who came to power by force and died under mysterious circumstances in June 1998. The second is Umaru Yar'Adua, a democratically elected president who died in May 2010, after a very long illness. Both of them were Muslims and both of them were buried in overly simple ways, according to Islamic tradition.

 Funeral of Umaru Yar'Adua

However, while the one robbed his country and terrorized his people (Abacha), the other (Yar'Adua), even though a politician like any other politician, is not known to have been a man of terror. I wonder whose memory humanity would cherish. While the one thought only of himself, the other had a broader vision for his people, even though he did not realize it. I wonder who, among the two, is an example worth emulating? Do these two deaths hold a lessons for African leaders? Do these deaths raise the issue of how African leaders would want to be remembered? In fact, are African leaders even concerned about how they want to be remembered?