Yar'Adua had a serious kidney complaint in 2000, and tried to dismiss rumors of continued ill health in 2007 by challenging his critics to a game of squash.

He interrupted his presidential election campaign months later to seek medical care in Germany.

On Nov. 23, 2009, he was flown to Saudi Arabia where he spent three months for the treatment of acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. Since then, he had not been seen in public.

Born in northern Nigeria's Katsina State in August 1951, Yar'Adua was a devout Muslim who hailed from a distinguished political family.

His father was a minister in the first post-independence cabinet and his elder brother, Shehu, was number two in the military government of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo from 1976 to 1979.

He was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Education/Chemistry in 1975.

He returned to the same university in 1978 and bagged his Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry in 1980.

Yar'Adua began his professional life as a chemistry teacher before going into business in the 1980s, starting at Sambo Farms Ltd in Funtua, Katsina State, as its General Manager between 1983 and 1989.

At the inception of the transitional government of Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar in 1998, Yar'Adua founded the K34 political association which later helped form the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

He contested and won election as Governor of Katsina State in 1999 and was re-elected in 2003.

In 2007, Yar'Adua was elected Nigeria's first university-educated President.

He is survived by an aged mother, wife, and seven children.