Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua

Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (1951–2010), Governor of Katsina (1999–2007) and brother of the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, won the controversial April 2007 election and at his inauguration on 29 May 2007 publicly acknowledged its flaws — the first Nigerian president to do so. He launched the Servant-Leader agenda; the Niger Delta amnesty of June 2009 ended the militant insurgency in the oil-producing region.

He became gravely ill in late 2009 and was secretly flown to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah on 23 November 2009 for treatment of pericarditis. The 'Cabal' centred on his wife Hajiya Turai, his cousin General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and senior aides kept Acting President Goodluck Jonathan from constitutional authority for 78 days. On 9 February 2010 the National Assembly adopted the 'Doctrine of Necessity', empowering Jonathan as Acting President without a formal handover letter. Yar'Adua was returned to Aso Rock secretly on 24 February 2010 and died on 5 May 2010.