Biography Intro: Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (March 5, 1943 – December 8, 1997) was a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s 1977 – 1979 military government.

NAME: Shehu Musa Yar’Adua

DATE OF BIRTH: March 5, 1943 – December 8, 1997

PLACE OF BIRTH:

FATHER: Musa Yar’Adua

OCCUPATION:

EDUCATION:  Yar’Adua attended Katsina Middle School and then Katsina Provincial School (now Government College, Katsina) for his secondary education; at the provincial school, he was classmates with current Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari. At the urging of his father and his father’s friend, the defense minister Muhammadu Ribadu, Yar’Adua took the entrance exam of the Nigerian Military Training College. He passed and was enlisted in the army in 1962 as part of the course 5 intake of the Nigerian military training school. Yar’Adua was selected for further training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Sandhurst, England

CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: In 1976, Yar’Adua became the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters after the assassination of Murtala Mohammed in an abortive coup. His office was assigned the task of managing operations of Operation Feed the Nation, a self-reliant agricultural policy of the new Obasanjo regime. Operation Feed the Nation, known as OFN, was an initiative to boost local production of agricultural produce, especially staple crops such as rice and wheat, so as to improve self-sufficiency of food crops and reduce growing food deficits. Mechanisms used to promote the objective included the distribution of heavily subsidized fertilizers and seeds to farmers, loans to small scale farmers to enable them to purchase equipment, and an educational outreach programme manned by Corpers to teach peasant farmers how to use modern agricultural equipment. However, by 1979 the policy had not achieved its primary goal of self-reliance and self-sufficiency