Former First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua, has expressed regrets about her unintended absence at the time of her husband’s passage.
According to her, she had briefly stepped out of the room to break her fast when, a few moments later, she was urgently ushered back into the room where her husband lay dead.
Reflecting on her life with the late President, Turai thanked “the Almighty Allah for honouring” her with Yar’adua as husband.
“It is the biggest privilege of my life and I am forever grateful to have spent a reasonable part of my life with him,” she she told the BBC Hausa Service.
Turai, who spoke on the 13th anniversary of her husband’s death, said Yar’Adua wanted to be a teacher in his life time, not a politician.
“His life ambition was to be a teacher, come home from school, sit with his family and crack jokes till another day. He never wanted politics or governance but as Allah willed, he joined politics and became president.
“Although he was a president, his lifestyle didn’t change. He never borrowed expensive life and remained simple and an easygoing person,” the former First Lady said.
Speaking on her private life with him and how much she misses her husband, Turai said, “I think about Yar’Adua everyday — anniversary or no anniversary. I think about him and miss him every single day.
“But I am happy on such anniversary days because the country talks about him, and people across the country come together to say good things about him and pray for him. That truly gladdens my heart.”
She disclosed that when her husband fell sick, she fasted everyday.
Recalling his final moments on May 5, 2010, she said, “At iftar time, I held his hands and told him I was stepping out for iftar and he nodded.
“A few minutes later, I was called back (into the room) and I met him dead.
“I regretted that day. I blamed myself for going for iftar. I still think I should have stayed.”
Iftar is the meal that breaks the fast, and it is usually eaten at sunset.
