Nigeria lost one of her former leaders on Monday. He was Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari was born on December 17, 1942 in Daura, present day Katsina State and died on Monday July 14, 2025 at the age of 82.
While many have mourned, some have jubilated. And some have been totally indifferent.
That should not be surprising for a country of over 200 million people. We are divided by race, religion, history, economy, and many other indices. All these play a role in perceptions, attitudes and interpretations of affairs of the nation.
Like every other Nigerian political and military leader, Buhari is remembered by different people for different reasons.
First he loomed in the country when he seized power on December 31, 1983, bringing an end to the corrupt regime of now equally late Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari.
The Buhari junta came at a time that lamentations over hardships were rife across the country.
The civilian government, led by the teacher-turned politician Shagari, wasted no time after returning to power from the military in 1979. Those who were elected (or rigged themselves into power) went straight for the economic jugular of Africa’s most populous country and the then undisputed “Giant of Africa.”
Contracts became the new robbery. Imports scam was bleeding the country and people with no known sources of income took over the Nigerian wealth map as the new nouveau riche. Inflation was then moving up at a frightening pace. And then, Buhari struck!
Embraced by a populace that had been trampled upon; little did they know what awaited them in the hands of the new Messiah. His regime was perceived as imposing on the people, a whirlwind of disciplinary measures aimed at curbing corruption and societal indiscipline. That was the time War Against Indiscipline (WAI), Nigeria’s first real comprehensive attempt at maintaining social order was launched.
Witnesses of that era recall that Buhari brought upon them a shocking wave of ‘misery’ occasioned by his decision to change the currency.
While the action was to render useless, the tonnes upon tonnes of Naira that kleptocratic elites had amassed (as he would later explain) millions of Nigerians suffered the untold consequences of a sudden policy that caught them unawares.
It was concluded that Buhari’s currency policy punished the poor who were actually the victims of the crazy theft of national wealth while the elite he targeted barely felt the impact of the Naira change order.
In the process, the rich might have lost some cash, the real tragedy was that the poor lost their lives.
Then Ibrahim Babangida struck!
From August 1985 that the Buhari regime was terminated, the Daura born soldier was to come back to reckoning again after three failed attempts to be elected as Nigeria’s president in 2015.
Coming back in Babariga exactly 30 years after his jackboot, Khaki and their appurtenances on the nation, the real Buhari, a military no-nonsense man came back tempered by democratic norms and rules of engagement.
Of course, his profile as a prudent and simple leader, which was formed as a military leader, had helped in selling his candidacy at a time that Nigerians thought the country was going down under the Goodluck Jonathan-led People’s Democratic Party government perceived leadership ineptitude and corruption across the country.
Buhari was seen as the Messiah that Nigeria had long waited for with the virile conviction that his anti-corruption profile would help halt the nation’s drift to the precipice.
But then, Nigerians were to start expressing regrets over their decision to elect a man who was accused of being taciturn, in different and almost practically left the country on autopilot, as corruption allegedly thrived and many of the electioneering promises thinned out.
Many were left wondering how a president, whose main selling credential at election was his puritanical construct, permitted so much sleaze under his watch.
Chief among his sins were that even if Buhari, as an individual, did not have his hands in the till, many of his appointees ‘helped’ themselves with some recklessness with so many unanswered questions till date.
From the Central Bank of Nigeria came the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the then Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele running into $6.2 Million
Also, in 2016, the Senate ad hoc committee indicted then-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal,in a ₦200 million contract scandal for clearing “invasive plant species” in Yobe State through a company belonging to him, Rholavision Nigeria Limited.
This is not to forget the Abba Kyari Bribery Allegation involving a ₦500 million bribe allegedly taken from telecommunication company, MTN to reduce a $5 billion fine for violating telecommunications regulations.
Under the Buhari administration, Nigerians witnessed the case of Abdulrasheed Maina who was accused of stealing N2bn from the Pension fund.
Nigerians would not forget in a hurry, Maina’s controversial reinstatement after he was initially removed from office.
A former Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris was to go down in the history of that office to have made away with ₦80 Billion from the nation’s treasury
Though, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission boasted of securing 603 convictions and recovering ₦500 billion of stolen funds between 2015 and 2018, the general belief was that those who fell under the sledge hammer selectively targeted.
Buhari was accused of sectionalism, favouritism, and a lacklustre hold on his duty as the country’s Number One citizen.
The Buhari era witnessed a higher wave of crises in the health and education sectors with brain drains witnessing its highest level.
Many Nigerians who also expected a retired General to bring his military background to bear on the insecurity across the country were disappointed.
Herder’s clashes with farmers, killings and terrorism did not abate with added suspicions that there was a seeming Fulanisation agenda which the late President tacitly endorsed.
However, even with his sins, Buhari managed to maintain some stance on the rule of law in many cases with the belief that he did use his veto where most leaders would have done preferring to let law prevail.
Some of these manifested in the electoral sectors as opposition parties’ victories in court were allowed to stand while the late President maintained a “no-interest” stance on matters of dispute whether it was against his party or not.
Where this manifested mostly was the manner in which the presidential candidate of his party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged.
Against allegations he had a preferred candidate, analysts believe that had the late President made up his mind to back any of his appointees, he would still have had his way given the powers at the disposal of any Nigerian president. After the APC’s presidential primary election dust had settled, it was clear that Buhari made good his inauguration day echoing words “I am for everybody and I am for nobody.”
Did Buhari take Nigeria some miles further in infrastructure development as anticipated? There is an overarching thinking that Nigeria could have done better in the eight years that he sat on the Number One seat.
Standing most relevant and prominent in his doings was the resuscitation of the railway transport system that has made the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna and Warri-Itakpe standard gauge routes a significant relief for travelling Nigerians.
Similar feats were also recorded in the Aviation sector with new terminals constructed in Abuja and Port Harcourt while those of Lagos and Kano were at advanced stages before his exit. The Abuja light rail project was also initiated during his tenure while a few accomplishments were recorded in the water transportation, blue economy sector.
However even if Buhari did not score brilliant marks in the overall delivery of the expected dividends of his two terms, he seems to have been appreciated for not being too brazen in the misuse of power. Buhari carried with him the look of a leader who preferred not to force anything even if some interpreted this to be some signs of leadership weakness. He would rank good among past leaders who left power quietly and lived a private life afterwards without any attempts at interference in the affairs of the nation.
In the end, the ceremony, the mourning and the obsequies that attended the burial of Muhammadu Buhari have shown us that he was, in spite of all things, still loved. Adieu!