When Muttaqa Rabe Darma was governor of Katsina State, he worked for the late President Umoru Musa Yar’Adua as commissioner for women’s affairs and then subsequently for works and rural development. After Darma was named Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, or PTDF, he became well-known across the country. He was a founding member of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party), but subsequently joined the senator Rabiu Kwakwanso-led NNPP (New Nigeria Peoples Party). In 2023, he contested for governor there as Nura Khalil’s running mate.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
During an interview with The Vanguard, Darma talked about the late President Unoru Musa Yar’Adua’s personality, his final days in office when he was critically ill, leading to the invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity to enable his then deputy, President Goodluck Jonathan, to succeed him.
When Rabe Darma was asked what he learnt from his late principal, he said he learnt a lot from him.
He said, “Yar’Adua was God-sent to Nigeria. I was a Commissioner under him when he was a governor. I was Executive Secretary for PTDF still under his government.
My house is bigger five times than Yar’Adua house. Yar’Adua humility is incomparable to anybody’s in this country. Yar’ Adua had only two (landed) properties.”
Further talking, he said, “The first one was here in Katsina, which he built from the loan he got from former Habib Bank in 1985. The second is in Kaduna, which was a gift from his late elder brother, General Shehu Musa.
At a time, he would tell us that if you acquire all things you are planning to get, would you take them to your grave? He was never materialistic.”CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
