Shagari’s Body Leaves Abuja For His Hometown

By Talatu Bala

The body of late former President, Shehu Shagari, has left the nation’s capital, Abuja, en route Sokoto, his hometown for burial later today.

His body will be received by the Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal before being transported to his hometown in Shagari Local Government Area of the state.

Shagari died on Friday evening at the national hospital in Abuja after a brief illness.

The 93-year-old, who was Nigeria’s first elected president served from 1979 to 1983 when his administration was truncated by a military coup.

His demise was announced on Twitter by both the governor of Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwa and the former president’s grandson, Bello Shagari.

The governor wrote: “I regret to announce the death of former President Shagari who just passed away at National Hospital Abuja.”

Similarly, Bello wrote, ”I regret announcing the death of my grandfather, H.E Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who died right now after brief illness at the National Hospital, Abuja.”

Shagari’s Bio Data:

Shagari was born in the northern Shagari village founded by his great-grandfather, Ahmadu Rufa’i, who was also the Village Head and took the name Shagari as his family name.

With his great wealth of experience in service, Shagari served seven times in a ministerial or cabinet post as a federal minister and  as federal commissioner from 1958-1975.

In 1954 Shagari was elected into his first public office as a member of the federal House of Representative for Sokoto west. In 1958, Shagari was appointed as parliamentary secretary (he left the post in 1959) to the Nigerian Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and that year he also served as the Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries.

From 1959-1960, Shagari was redeployed to the ministry for economic development, as the Federal Minister for Economic Development.

In 1960-1962, he was moved to the Pensions ministry as the Federal Minister for Pensions. From 1962-1965, Shagari was made the Federal minister for internal affairs. From 1965 up until the first military coup in January 1966, Shagari was the Federal Minister for works.

In 1967 he was appointed as the secretary for Sokoto province education development fund. From 1968-1969, Shagari was given a state position in the North Western State as commissioner for establishments.

After the Nigerian civil war, from 1970-1971, Shagari was appointed by the military head of state General Yakubu Gowon as the federal commissioner for economic development, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.

From 1971-75 he served as the Federal commissioner (a position now called minister) of finance. During his tenure as the commissioner of finance for Nigeria, Shagari was also a governor for the World Bank and a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) committee of twenty.

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