Former minister of health dies at 66
– A former minister of health has died at the age of 66
– Dr Haliru Alhassan was the minister of state for health and later senior minister of health under Goodluck Jonathan
– The former minister and PDP chieftain died on Sunday, May 10 around 12 noon after a brief illness.
A former Nigerian minister of health, Dr Haliru Alhassan has been declared dead. According to the report, Alhassan died on Sunday, May 10 around 12 noon after a brief illness. Alhassan was said to be diabetic before his death. He is survived by one wife and four children. Before his demise, Dr Alhassan was the chairman, Governing Board of Health Services Management Board, Sokoto state. He is also a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Before his elevation to the minister of health under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, he was the minister of state for health. Alhassan joins a long list of prominent statesmen in northern Nigeria who have died in recent weeks.
On Monday, May 4, a former governor of old Sokoto state, Garba Nadama, had died at the age of 82 after a protracted illness. Late Nadama was elected deputy governor of Sokoto state in 1979 and became governor in November 1981, following the death of the governor, Shehu Kangiwa. He was elected governor in 1983 on the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. His death was announced few days after a former governor of Borno state, Alhaji Muhammad Goni, was declared dead on Wednesday, April 29, after a brief illness. Goni was a retired civil servant who served as the governor of Borno state from 1979–1983 in the Nigerian Second Republic. Goni’s death came a few days after an influential traditional ruler in his state, Shehu of Bama, Kyari Ibn Umar El-Kanemi, passed away. The monarch passed away at a hospital in Maiduguri, the state capital in the afternoon on Monday, April 27. It is not clear if the recent spike in deaths in northern Nigeria is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging Nigeria and the rest of the world.