Deputy Speaker, I move the draft resolution printed in my name on the Order Paper, as follows:
That the House -
1) notes with profound sadness the death of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who passed away on 5 May 2010 at the age of 58, after a long battle with kidney and heart ailments;
2) further notes that President Yar'Adua had been absent from the political scene since November 2009, when he left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, from where he returned to Nigeria in February but remained too sick to govern;
3) remembers that President Yar'Adua's journey into politics began when he became an active member of and mobiliser for the defunct Peoples' Redemption Party (PRP) and that he was one of the founding members of the Peoples' Front, a political association under the leadership of his elder brother, the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, during the Babangida transitions programme and that this association later became the Social Democratic Party (SDP);
4) further remembers that during his tenure as the governor of Katsina state, there had been unprecedented development in that state in the educational and health sector, provision of rural and urban roads, electrification of rural and urban areas, water supply and agriculture;
5) recalls that he had been proven to be prudent, accountable and transparent in his leadership and that the state now enjoys a surplus of N6.56 billion from an empty treasury and backlogs of debts which he met as a governor in 1999 and that, as a result, he had won the National Primary Education Productivity Merit Award in 2004 and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) best Governor Award under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) in 2005; 6) further recalls that the South African Government had the privilege of hosting the late President Umaru Yar'Adua and his delegation in June 2008;
7) acknowledges President Yar'Adua as a genuine peacemaker, whose initiatives, humility and respect began to bring confidence to the peace process in Nigeria; and
8) conveys its deepest sympathy to his family, friends, colleagues and the people of Nigeria and assures them that the prayers and thoughts of the House go out to them during their time of mourning.
Agreed to.