ABUJA will today host three special guests of the Federal Government who incidentally are coming to boost two non-governmental events that the government has helped to prop up.
First, after a breakfast meeting by former United States president Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates' father, Williams H. Gates, at the State House with President Olusegun Obasanjo, he will lead another powerful delegation to the commissioning of the epic Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Centre which construction giants Julius Berger completed this weekend.
Carter and Gates are in Abuja as part of global efforts and campaign against the deadly HIV/AIDS disease in Nigeria. A summit to that effect holds in Abuja today. The Bill and the Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carter Centre are co-sponsors in conjunction with NACAP led by Prof. Akinsete.
The more celebrated event that promises to attract unprecedented gathering of political personalities is the commissioning of the Yar'Adua Centre, located on a hill opposite Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers.
Specifically, President Obasanjo who doubles as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Yar'Adua Foundation has personally invited eminent personalities like the Ghanaian President, John Kuffour who has arrived in Nigeria as special guest of honour.
Similarly, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who is vice chairman of the Foundation has also invited and mobilised the political family members of the Yar'Adua awesome platform - the PDM.
The PDM's powerful machine was generally believed to be the conveyor belt candidate Obasanjo used to get to power in 1999.
Early in the week, as Julius Berger engineers were putting finishing touches to the beautiful edifice, the director of Yar' Adua Foundation Mrs. Jamilah Yar (formerly Jacquieline) Farris conducted a few journalists round the centre.
The centre has an auditorium with a sitting capacity of about 450 people, private meeting rooms and a state of the art technology, especially for communication. There are three simultaneous translator booths, cordless infra red head sets, projection screen, video slide projector and other facilities.
There is a Research Library which according to Farris would not be commissioned until 2003 when the official biography of the late General would have been completed for launch.
Paradoxically, while the auditorium is named after Vice President Atiku, the library is named after President Obasanjo.
An unnamed writer from Financial Times is said to have been commissioned to handle the biography of the man generally regarded as Bridge Builder. He has obtained leave of absence to do the job.
One unique architectural feature at the ultra-modern, multi-million naira edifice is the unfinished Bridge at the main entrance, which signifies the late General and politician profile as a bridge builder.
The unfinished bridge "stands as a symbol of Shehu Musa Yar'Adua's life, work and legacy" to remind Nigerians of the need to continue the struggle for fairness and social harmony in the country.
As the bridge rises and widens", Farris continues, "so too did his (Shehu's) accomplishments in the military, government, business and politics.
Curiously, "the axis formed by the beginning and end of the unfinished bridge point directly to the National Assembly, symbol of the nation's democracy".
Ms Farris did not state whether the architectural pasture is deliberate or just coincidental.
A first time visitor/guest to the centre will surely be excited by an "inspirational multi-media presentation" of life and times of Shehu Musa Yar'Adua entitled "A Life of Service".
It is presented against the backdrop of the Nigerian history from colonial times to the present democratic dispensation. This also features Shehu's pedegree, family background, his school, career, role in civil war, his service as transport minister up to the time he served in Obasanjo's first dispensation.
President Obasanjo was Yar'Adua boss from 1976 to 1979 when Shehu was Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters. Whether in active service or retirement, they worked together as close confidants, sharing many things in common.
Even as fate destined, they were both implicated in the controversial phantom coup story of 1995 while the late General Sani Abacha held sway as ruler.
By the same token, Atiku was one of the closest allies and confidants of the late General in their days in Peoples Front (PF), now defunct. They later moved to SDP where they secured their relevance.
While Yar'Adua was on the verge of winning SDP's presidential ticket then, Atiku was in the throes of winning the governorship ticket to Adamawa Government House.
They suffered the same fate as the IBB regime banned all of them.
But the series of reverses suffered by Yar'Adua up to 1992, did not discourage him. He refused to support the Abacha intervention in 1993, culminating in his arrest at the constitutional confidence in 1994. He was subsequently jailed and while serving the jail term, the politician died at the Abakaliki Prison on December 8 1997 at 54.
Today's event, it was learnt is "to solidify the "Obasanjo-Atiku for 2003" project, using the Yar'Adua's PDM political machine as a paradigm of relevance, an official of state said yesterday.
