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Reuters
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Nigeria bids farewell to former leader Buhari with burial in home state
KATSINA, Nigeria, July 15 (Reuters) - Nigeria's former President Muhammad Buhari was buried on Tuesday in the backyard of his home in northern Katsina state, as residents climbed trees to bid farewell to the 82-year-old. Buhari ruled Africa's most populous nation between 2015 and 2023 and died in a London hospital on Sunday after an undisclosed illness. He was one of two former Nigerian military strongmen who returned to power via the ballot box. In his hometown of Daura, supporters chanted "Sai Baba", an endearing name used by followers, while they attempted to catch a last glimpse of Buhari's casket as it was lowered into the ground. The coffin, draped in Nigeria's white and green national colours, had arrived at the airport in Katsina earlier and was received by President Bola Tinubu, government officials and men and women in traditional Muslim attire. The former president was given a military parade and a 21-gun salute at the airport before his body was transported to Daura, about 80 kilometres away. Tinubu has declared seven days of national mourning and a public holiday on Tuesday to honour Buhari. After first rising to power in the early 1980s as a military leader following a coup, Buhari made a comeback as a democratically elected president when he defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. Buhari's eight-year rule was marked by economic recession, foreign currency shortages, a slump in oil production and insecurity that spread across the country. Even so, Buhari continued to enjoy a cult-like following in his home state and across the largely Muslim northern Nigeria. Many supporters admired his austere lifestyle and anti-corruption crusade, although critics say few public officials were jailed for graft.
Al Jazeera
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Nigeria honours ex-President Buhari with state burial and tribute
Nigeria's former President Muhammadu Buhari was buried in the backyard of his home in Daura, a town in the northern Katsina state, as supporters climbed trees and shouted 'Sai Baba' to bid farewell to the 82-year-old. A military parade and 21-gun salute honoured the former president on Tuesday at the airport before his body was transported 80km (50 miles) to Daura, where crowds surged to catch a final glimpse as the casket was lowered into the ground. Buhari died on Sunday in a London hospital following an undisclosed illness. His coffin, wrapped in Nigeria's green and white flag, was flown into Katsina and met by President Bola Tinubu, senior government officials, and mourners. Buhari, who first seized power in a 1983 military coup and ruled for less than two years, returned to lead Africa's most populous country as a civilian after defeating Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. He served two terms until stepping down in 2023. President Tinubu declared seven days of national mourning and a public holiday to honour Buhari's legacy. While Buhari's presidency saw some achievements in infrastructure and anti-corruption efforts, his time in office was also marked by economic downturns, worsening insecurity, and a prolonged crisis in Nigeria's oil sector. Still, many in northern Nigeria viewed him as a principled and austere leader who tried to steer the country through turbulent times. Supporters, some in tears, chanted as the casket disappeared from view, marking the end of an era for a man both revered and criticised. Buhari leaves behind a mixed legacy Known for his austere style and fiery rhetoric against corruption, Buhari was seen by his supporters as a reformer. 'I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody,' he often declared, seeking to position himself above Nigeria's entrenched political factions. Yet his presidency struggled to contain rising insecurity. While he promised to defeat Boko Haram and restore order, armed violence spread far beyond the northeast. Gunmen, separatists, and criminal groups operated with impunity across large parts of the country by the end of his tenure. Still, Buhari leaves behind a legacy as a symbol of democratic change in Nigeria, even if the transformation he promised remained incomplete. Speaking to Al Jazeera from London following Buhari's death over the weekend, Alexis Akwagyiram, managing editor at Semafor Africa and a longtime observer of Nigerian politics, said Buhari will be remembered for achieving what many thought impossible: winning power as an opposition candidate. 'He was the first opposition candidate since the return to civilian rule to win at the ballot box,' Akwagyiram said, referencing Buhari's 2015 victory over Jonathan. 'History will remember him favourably for that.' Yet Akwagyiram was blunt about the failings that marked Buhari's time in office. He described the former general as 'very ineffective' in managing Nigeria's economy, citing his insistence on maintaining a strong naira, which led to a convoluted system of multiple exchange rates and two recessions during his tenure. Despite the criticisms, Akwagyiram highlighted why Buhari resonated so strongly with many Nigerians. 'He had the personal brand of integrity and honesty,' he said. 'In a political climate renowned for corruption, that was appealing.' Buhari's austere image and northern support base helped him build a national coalition that twice propelled him to the presidency, a rare feat in Nigerian politics. 'He didn't try to enrich himself,' Akwagyiram said. 'That's something history will look on favourably.'
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Muhammadu Buhari: A legacy of 'praise and pain'
Muhammadu Buhari'slegacy in Nigeriais likely to be mixed. He will be remembered for trying to foster integrity in the country and for leadership that was deeply flawed. "From his military era to his two-term civilian presidency, he leaves behind a legacy filled with both praise and pain. We must reflect on justice and accountability," Sheriff Ansu, a digital content creator, said. Human rights activists say that he never let go of his autocratic tendencies. "Buhari was an ethnic bigot. He had contempt for the rule of law; he disobeyed court orders. He engaged in enforced disappearances of critics," Omoyele Sowore, an activist based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, told DW. "In 2015, he presided over the mass murder of over 300 Shiites in Zaria. Young Nigerians protesting police brutality were gunned down in October 2020 by soldiers directed by Buhari. That is unforgettable and unforgivable," Sowore said. The protests were part of a movement dubbed #EndSARS, named after a special police unit that for years was accused of racketeering, torture and murder. The Buhari government violently crushed the movement. Buhari defeated Goodluck Jonathan at the polls in 2015, in what was judged to be Nigeria's fairest general election to date. Not everyone liked having a former military general at the country's helm. Many, nevertheless, hoped he would crack down on armed groups. "He is one man who believed in making Nigeria the best place to live on Earth. He tried his best to bring Nigerians together as military ruler and a democratically elected leader," Yusuf Dantalle, chairman of Nigeria's Inter Party Advisory Council, told DW. "That does not mean he was perfect. He had his flaws like any other human being." "What stands out is that his presidency triggered national conversations around leadership accountability, youth inclusion and restructuring of systems to entrench democracy," Osasu Igbinedion Ogwuche, a media entrepreneur told DW. Many had expected Buhari's tenure as a democratically elected leader to be characterized by the kind of discipline, order and stability of a military veteran. Buhari described himself as a "converted democrat" when he swapped his military uniform for kaftans and prayer caps. "I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody," was his constant refrain to both supporters and critics. But Buhari's lackluster leadership often made headlines and earned him the moniker "Baba Go Slow." It took him six months to name his ministers in 2015 and the oil-dependent economy was hobbled by low crude prices. Buhari earned a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics. But his crackdowns on corruption also ran into criticism and failed to yield high-profile convictions. He retained his popularity in the country's poor and largely Muslim north, where he was from and where voters propelled him to his second term in 2019, That came despite a term that was blighted by Nigeria's first recession in a generation, attacks on oilfields by militants. Buhari was seen to repeatedly ignore advice from the International Monetary Fund to devalue the Nigerian naira. Instead he kept the currency artificially high — the same failed approach he had used as a military ruler in the 1980s. In 2022, the production of oil — by far Nigeria's greatest export — fell to its lowest level in more than two decades due to theft in the Niger Delta. Frail health often interfered with Buhari's tenure as president. He made frequent trips to hospitals abroad for an undisclosed illness. In 2017, rumors of his death circulated after he disappeared from the public eye for 51 days, reportedly to undergo treatment. Buhari's death at a London health facility reminded many Nigerian citizens of his medical trips and the controversy these had triggered. Buhari, an ethnic Fulani and devout Muslim, was born on December 17, 1942, in Nigeria's northern Katsina state. He joined the army at 20 and rose quickly through the ranks, becoming an officer and the military governor of the north-east. In 1976, the country's then military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo appointed Buhari as petroleum and energy minister. The position put him in charge of the newly founded National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Despite his new key role at one of Africa's largest oil producers, Buhari returned to the army as a commander, rejoining its Supreme Military Council, and leading several units. In 2003, he ran as the presidential candidate for the All Nigeria's Peoples Party. His defeat was followed by similarly unsuccessful bids in 2007 and 2011. In 2015, Buhari finally won the presidency with 54% of the vote. He had promised to fight rampant corruption and defeat the Islamist terrorist Boko Haram militia. "The symbolic thing about his victory is the fact that he is considered one of Nigeria's most incorruptible leaders. That is significant in a country where the population does not believe people in important positions deserve such a reputation," Manji Cheto, the vice president of Teneo Intelligence, said at the time. On December 31, 1983, when General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the military overthrew elected President Shehu Shagari, Buhari was appointed to chair Nigeria's Supreme Military Council. He went on to suspend the constitution, ban all political parties, and clamp down on corruption — making good on his threat at the time to jail the corrupt "without the nonsense of judicial proceedings." Under Buhari's "war on indiscipline" nearly 500 people were jailed for corruption and wasting taxpayers' money. Public servants were reportedly made to genuflect for coming late to work. Buhari had people executed, was intolerant of criticism and restricted press freedom. Nobellaureate Wole Soyinka said Nigerians felt they were living under an "iron-fisted, rigid rule and governance that spreads fear." Ironically, Buhari's first reign ended as it started: in a coup staged by General Babangida in August 1985. In the 2022-2023 presidential race, Buhari endorsed Bola Tinubu who had been dishing out praise over his dedication to national unity, reforms and discipline. Chinaza Samuel in Abuja contributed to this article. Edited by: Benita van Eyssen
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Muhammadu Buhari obituary
The soldier and politician Muhammadu Buhari, who has died aged 82, was both military dictator and, three decades later, democratically elected president of Nigeria. His reputation as a no-nonsense general gained him lasting popularity, but also much criticism, with charges of repression and human rights abuses, as well as failure to tackle the economy or jihadist terrorism. His election in 2015 was notable for being the first to unseat an incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan. However this success was also his fourth attempt. Buhari had secured millions of votes in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections, but fell short of the required voting margins partly because, as a Muslim from the north, who supported sharia law, he was unpopular in southern and central Nigeria. He finally succeeded in 2015 by marketing himself as a 'reformed democrat' and appointing a top clergyman from the country's biggest Pentecostal megachurch, Yemi Osinbajo, as his deputy. 'I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody,' he said on his inauguration day, a quote that became his mantra. At 72, he was also the oldest person elected to the office in Nigeria, and that set the pace of his presidency, earning him the nickname 'Baba Go Slow'. In his first term, the goodwill began to dissipate after he took five months to appoint a cabinet and reintroduced the same economic policies from his military days. His 'hands-off' management style led to the view that others, in particular his nephews and chief of staff, were running the show. This was reinforced by a viral photo of Buhari picking his teeth in the presidential palace, and a 104-day absence on medical grounds in 2017, fuelling conspiracy theories that he had died and been replaced by a Sudanese body double. During his two-term tenure, Nigeria faced some of its worst security crises since the Biafran war (1967-70). Boko Haram – which Buhari had promised to crush – abducted, displaced and killed thousands of civilians, and split, as one faction became the Islamic West Africa Province. Still, his government claimed the jihadists had been 'technically defeated'. After the army shot peaceful protesters during anti-police brutality demonstrations in 2020 in Lagos, Buhari's national address days later ignored the killings entirely. By the time he left office in 2023, Nigeria, then Africa's largest economy, had slumped to two recessions in eight years, despite there being none in the two decades before. The naira became one of the worst performing global currencies, forcing the central bank to try unorthodox measures. One of those was cutting down trees in the capital Abuja so that streetside bureau de change operators would have no shade to do business under. Thousands of young people left the country in its biggest emigration wave in decades. Nevertheless, Buhari remained popular, especially in northern Nigeria, where many acknowledged the failure of his policies but blamed those around him. Born in Daura, in northern Nigeria, he was the son of Adamu and Zulaiha Buhari. After school in Katsina, at 19 he joined the army, and underwent training in the UK, at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot (1962-65). He was commissioned as a second lieutenant two years later and progressed through the ranks, serving as a minister in the military regime that ruled Nigeria from 1975 to 1979. His hardline character was spotted in April 1983 when, as a commanding officer of an armoured division, his troops pursued invading Chadian forces across the border disregarding orders by the then president Shehu Shagari. By 31 December, he had overthrown Shagari in a coup. Buhari and his never-smiling deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, emphasised anti-corruption and discipline under a 'war against indiscipline' campaign, which manifested itself as authoritarianism, press suppression and human rights abuses. In April 1985, for instance, three men were executed by firing squad for drug offences instead of the maximum six-month jail term, after a new decree was retroactively applied. Three months later came the 'Umaru Dikko affair': the attempted kidnapping of a former minister in London using a crate uncovered by British customs officials at Heathrow airport, which led to a breakdown in diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the UK. In August 1985 Buhari was ousted from office by another junta. He spent three years under house arrest, then led a relatively quiet life until democracy was restored in Nigeria in 2003, and he began his presidential campaigns. Following his 2011 election loss, Buhari said in a speech: 'If what happened in 2011 should happen again in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.' The remarks caused alarm given that post-election violence had already led to the deaths of more than 800 people. But his supporters framed it as a metaphor for resistance to electoral malpractice. In 2019, the popular Nigerian newspaper the Punch announced in an editorial that it would prefix Buhari's name with his military rank and refer to his administration as a 'regime' to protest about the government's 'serial disregard for human rights, court orders, and the battering of other arms of government and Nigeria's democratic institutions'. Buhari's spokesperson responded by saying that as he had earned the rank, the newspaper was free to use it, a 'testimony to press freedom in Nigeria'. After stepping down in 2023, Buhari confined himself mostly to his Daura home until he arrived in London for medical care. His first marriage, to Safinatu Yusuf, in 1971, ended in divorce. Buhari is survived by his second wife, Aisha (nee Halilu), whom he married in 1989, their son and four daughters, and three daughters from his first marriage (another daughter from that marriage predeceased him). Muhammadu Buhari, soldier and politician, born 17 December 1942; died 13 July 2025
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Body of former Nigerian leader Buhari to be flown home for simple burial
The body of Nigeria's former President Muhammadu Buhari, who died aged 82 in a London clinic on Sunday is being flown home to be buried in his hometown in Katsina state. Katsina state governor Dikko Radda, who is in the British capital with Buhari's family, said he would be buried later on Monday in Daura town, 50 miles (80km) from Katsina town. Nigeria's Vice-President Kashim Shettima is also in London and will accompany Buhari's remains back to Nigeria. "I just left his family at the hospital where he died and the decision is that his remains will be taken to Daura for burial, the plan is to leave in the morning," Radda told DW Hausa. The vice-president also confirmed Daura to be Buhari's final resting place in a post on social media after arriving in London. He said that Buhari had died after a brief illness without revealing any further details. In line with Islamic teachings Buhari is expected to be buried as quickly as possible in a simple ceremony, Islamic cleric Abdullahi Garangamawa told the BBC. "The only thing that should stop Buhari's corpse from being buried today [Monday] is if his body arrives [in] Daura in the night because Islam frowns at night burials. In that case, Tuesday morning will be fine," the cleric added. Tributes have continued to pour in for the late army general who was one of only two people to have led Nigeria twice (both as military and civilian president) in its post-independence history. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, defeated by Buhari in the 2015 election, described the late leader as someone who "was selfless in his commitment to his duty and served the country with character and a deep sense of patriotism". Former military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, overthrown by Buhari in a 1985 coup, also showered praises on the octogenarian. "He is a man who, even in retirement, remained a moral compass to many, and an example of modesty in public life,' Babangida noted. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is expected to attend the funeral prayer in Daura town, has declared a seven-day national mourning period in honour of his predecessor. In an official condolence statement released on Sunday evening, Tinubu said the nation would pay its final respects to the former leader with dignity and honour, starting with the lowering of all national flags to half-mast across the country from Sunday. Former Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari dies aged 82 Big shake-up in Nigerian politics as heavyweights join forces Nigeria's major tax overhaul explained Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Focus on Africa This Is Africa
