Former Nigerian First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua, has advised Remi, wife of President-elect Bola Tinubu, to expect attacks if her husband would adopt the style of her late husband in office.

Mrs Yar’Adua made the assertion in an interview with BBC on Saturday, marking the 13th year of her husband’s demise. 

Asked to advise the incoming first lady, Mrs Turai said “my advice for her is that she should be patient and continuously be patient. This is because if her husband would be like Umaru, who stood for the right course, she would be the target. That was what happened to me.” 

She added, “My husband was not taking alcohol, he did not go after women, he was not corrupt. So the only thing they could do to upset him because he loved his wife, was to attack his wife.”

Mrs Yar’Adua further said Mrs Tinubu should “never relent in advising” her husband. “She is the only one that will genuinely advise him. Others would only tell him what he wants to hear. The wife is the only one that would give him information and ask him to investigate.” 

Mr Tinubu, in a tribute to commemorate the 13th year of the former president’s demise, said he will follow the good examples of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s when he assumes office from May 29.

Mr Yar’Adua, a former Katsina governor between 1999 to 2007, succeeded former president Olusegun Obasanjo in office in May 2007.

His short lived administration was rocked by calls for us resignation as he spent months in hospital abroad treating undisclosed ailment. However, Mrs Turai and other cabals perpetuated the sick president upon Nigeria until his death in May 2010.

The Yar’Adua administration is credited with the dousing of the then-raging Niger Delta agitation which crippled the oil sector, the nation’s top earner. The late Nigerian leader also made moves to reform the nation’s electoral process.