THE PASSAGE OF MUHAMMADU BUHARI
Muhammadu Buhari, the immediate past President of Nigeria, dies at 82
Many Nigerians were shocked on Sunday afternoon to learn about the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari. While reports of his recent hospitalisation in the United Kingdom had made the rounds, an imminent end was hardly contemplated for a man whose tenure as president was punctuated by all too frequent prolonged visits to London hospitals. Barely a day before his passing, one of his erstwhile spokesmen, Garba Shehu, published a somewhat revealing memoir of aspects of Buhari’s tenure. As the nation therefore bids farewell to this soldier- statesman, Buhari will go down in Nigerian history as a leader who served both in military uniform and civilian mufti.
As the immediate past president of the country, Buhari’s stewardship was often greeted with contradictory judgments. While his numerous supporters remember him as ‘Mai Gaskiya’, a simple and honest man who was elected to office in further consolidation of the nation’s democracy, there are also those who argue that his eight-year tenure was not a great period for the nation. Yet, many Nigerians also recall his giant strides in some infrastructure, particularly the rail sector.
Born on 17 December 1942 in Daura, Katsina State, Buhari attended Katsina Middle School (later renamed to Katsina Provincial Secondary School) from 1956 to 1961. At the age of 19 in 1962, Buhari was recruited into the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) which was renamed Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in 1964. His military education continued at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England, after which he was commissioned a second lieutenant. During the civil war between 1970 and 1971, Buhari was Brigade Major/Commandant, 31st Infantry Brigade. He would later serve as the Assistant Adjutant-General, First Infantry Division Headquarters, from 1971 to 1972 before proceeding to the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973.
As a military officer, Buhari held several political and command positions in the country in the seventies and early eighties. He was Governor of the North-Eastern State (now Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba), Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources (now Minister), member of the Supreme Military Council and General Officer Commanding (GOC) of different army divisions. Most remarkably in December 1983, Buhari became the Head of State following the overthrow of the Second Republic administration of the late President Shehu Shagari.
Toppled by General Ibrahim Babangida in August 1985, Buhari went into hibernation for several years before eventually joining politics during the current dispensation. He contested the presidential elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and lost. In 2015, he was elected president and served two terms before leaving office in 2023. His tenure as a civilian leader is backgrounded in his earlier two-year rule as a military leader when he was renowned for his strong stance on civil discipline, anti-corruption and unwavering nationalism. But in pursuing these cardinal areas, he trampled on the rights and liberties of Nigerians.
It has often been speculated that Buhari’s return to power as an elected president was
more to prove a point to his erstwhile military colleagues than a genuine democratic commitment to reform, and social good. Yet, as president, Buhari sought to unite a divided nation, discipline a fractious polity and tame a very corrupt society. At least those were the selling points during the campaigns that eventually brought him to power ten years ago. He strained but met many obstacles in the form of insecurity, massive corruption and economic hopelessness. In the end, Buhari left office as a leader whose best was hardly good enough for a vastly changed and degraded nation.
What is not in doubt, however, is that Buhari was an accomplished soldier, a respected politician and a great Nigerian patriot. May God comfort the family he left behind.
