*First published in Desert Herald newspaper April 2007. It is a month now since Governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of Katsina State and PDP presidential candidate was rumored to be dead as a result of a kidney-related illness. Although it didn’t take Nigerians long to realize that the rumour was false, there were however some nagging speculations from some quarters that Yar’Adua’s health was far from being normal.
As such, a retired hunter and psychiatric hospital staff in Katsina, Malam Sani Maigemu, has yet opened a Pandora's box of the Yar’Adua family charging that the Katsina governor’s brain in his youthful days had once hanged in the balance. In an exclusive interview the old man revealed that Umaru Musa was as mad as a hatter, that he had to be flogged and chained while receiving treatment in the psychiatric hospital.
As he told his story, Malam Sani Maigemu exuded the confidence of a man who knew what he was talking about. Isn’t there some sort of mistake? Could it really be the Governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Nigerians all know? “Yes, Umaru is a mad man,” Maigemu confirmed.
The traditional healer said he treated his patients with concoction made from roots of plants, soap, and palm oil, and also applied chaining, flogging and beating on patients who proved either violent or stubborn in taking orders. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua however fell into these categories of patients, and he had his fair share of the flogging. Malam Maigemu revealed.
Who is Malam Sani Maigemu?
My name is Malam Sani. I formerly stayed in Jos and I worked in court with the white men. Then I later went to Gombe, Gummi (in present-day Zamfara State) Kano, Borno, and Kaduna before I later joined the psychiatric hospital in Katsina, where I was for over 35 years as a traditional healer, working along with the psychiatrists. I am now retired and happily leaving with my family here in Katsina, where I receive my monthly pension, which Umaru Yar’Adua has refused to pay us since January last year. I worked in court with Alkali Malam Shehu, before I later went to Jingir (in present-day Plateau State), where the white men gave me the task of monitoring the forest in Jingir. They gave me this job after they noticed my prowess in hunting and catching wild animals such as lions, leopards that sometimes blocked the roads for pedestrians. I was a good hunter, you know.
I also worked at the Dogon-Dutse Forest with the White men. They (the White men) said I was the 41st person to have worked with them, but they admitted I was the most skillful of them all. It was at Dogon-Dutse that my first child was born. His name is Auwal and he now works in a court.
How I Met Umaru Musa’s Father
I had traveled far and wide before settling at Daudawa in Katsina State, where I met Umaru’s father, Alhaji Musa Tafida. We were close neighbours at that time.
Curing Lunatics
I learned to cure lunatics traditionally from my grandfather. He taught me everything I needed to know about curing lunatics. I use traditional herbs on patients and in cases where a patient proves strong-headed we practically apply force. We use whip to flog them, which made them return to their senses and behave themselves.
Working with the Psychiatric Hospital
When I cam back from my adventure in some African counties, my sister sent for me that Galadima wished to see me, and that I should meet him at the psychiatric hospital. I immediately went. He invited me into his private room after having a brief meeting with the management. They said I could resume duty that very night. I was assigned to take care of the mad people, and I was not even told the nature of their various illnesses, but I was given full authority to do my job. The first thing I did was to unchain them and asses their conditions. In fact, I spent half of the night chatting with them. When the psychiatric doctor came the following morning, he could not handle them, and he had to beg me to re-chain them. That was how I started. I treated so many patients but I can’t recall their number now.
Umaru Musa Yar’adua at the Hospital
His father, Alhaji Musa Tafida, reported at the hospital that his son was seriously sick and he believed it was a psychiatric case. So I was sent to bring him (Umaru). When I met him in his father’s house, I asked him to follow to the Psychiatric hospital, but he refused. I had to flog him. Check his back and you will see the scars. So I chained him and took him to the psychiatric hospital. Each time be tried to be stubborn, I flogged him with my whip, which that I nicknamed “Kwaram-gwama”. It is a specially made whip I used on the patients whenever they tried to be violent.
Nature of Umaru’s Insanity
Yar’adua suffered from anxiety, effective disorder, such as depression, extreme mood swings, and stress from traumatic experience, isolation from people and other abnormal behaviours. That was why I sometimes had to use my “Kwaram-gwama” (whip) on him because no one could do that to him except me. Other members of staff treated him with kid gloves because of his rich family background. Umaru was too loose and usually stubborn. Even as a mad man he would refuse to follow simple instructions. I had to handcuff him when he was to be taken to Kaduna. Take a good look at his back and you will see the scars of my “Kwaram-gwama”. And still if you observe Umaru very well you will not miss that strange looks in his eyes. He can stare at even a familiar person for a long moment without blinking his eyes. He did that when he was in the psychiatric hospital. He would stare at a person or object for hours without blinking. After spending two days in Kaduna, his elder brother, Shehu Musa, decided to take him abroad.
Can Such Mental Illness Be cured?
Not really. Such patients hardly gain their normal sense. Like I said earlier, Umaru’s insanity was not caused by hard drugs but rather it is an inherited illness. I have treated Umaru Musa and his elder brother, Shehu Musa. When their father asked me to go along with Shehu for treatment, I locked him up in my house, but he somehow bolted and ran away. His father, Tafida and one of his close friends, one Alhaji Garba Mashi, were upset, and accused me of being careless. I suggested to the late Tafida to get me handcuffs to chain Shehu, and that he could even hold the key so that he would release him whenever he was satisfied and sure of Shehu’s recovery.
Is Umaru Musa Now Normal?
Because of the treatment I gave him at Daudawa, knowing the gravity of his mental illness, I don’t think he is completely okay now. The bouts of such mental illness usually occur during the dry and hamattan seasons. At close observation, you will find out that Umaru Musa does not even observe the five daily prayers regularly. No, Umaru is still abnormal.
“They Never Say ‘Thank You’ after Recovery”
If they see us after they have recovered, they often run away from us. I can still remember when Umaru paid a visit to the psychiatric hospital (after he became governor). I intended to meet him one-on-one but his orderly pushed me aside. And when he (Umaru) saw me, he immediately put his face down.
Present Status
I am now retired, living only on my little monthly pension.
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