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Former President Buhari dies in London at 82

Bature Magaji by Bature Magaji
July 13, 2025
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Former President Buhari dies in London at 82
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*His life and times 

*His failed, successful political exploits

By Myke Uzendu, Daniel Tuokua and Stellamaries Amuwa 

The former President, Muhammadu Buhari, has reportedly died in London, aged 82 years. 

He passed away at the former Nigerian colonial masters home at about 4.30 pm, on Sunday, July 13, following a prolonged illness.

This was announced in an official statement released by family spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu.

Shehu wrote: “The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, this afternoon in a clinic in London.

“May Allah accept him in Aljannatul Firdaus. Amin.”

Former President Buhari, who served as Nigeria’s civilian president from 2015 to 2023 after previously leading the country as a military head of state between 1983 and 1985, was known for his stance on anti-corruption and efforts to stabilise the economy.

Buhari has previously ran for president of Nigeria on the platform and support of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 2003 and 2007 and on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform in 2011. 

In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress party for the 2015 general election. Buhari won the election, defeating incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. 

Buhari was sworn in on 29 May 2015. In February 2019, Buhari was re-elected, defeating his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by over 3 million votes.

For the eight years he was president, he was constantly visiting hospitals abroad and failed to build any standard hospital through the period where the VIPs in the country could be treated without spending the nation’s scarce foreign exchange abroad.

Up until today, over two years after he handed over to President Bola Tinubu, the practice of top public officials and captains of industry travelling abroad for medical treatments and check-ups have continued as no changes have occured in the nation’s health sector.

His leadership era also witnessed the highest level of brain drain, particularly of medical personnel due to harsh working conditions for them and other professionals in the country.

*Early Life

Buhari was born to a Muslim family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, Nigeria. 

He was  the 23rd child of Mallam Hardo Adamu, a Fula chieftain originally from Dumurkul in Mai’Adua and Zulaihat. 

He was named after ninth-century Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Bukhari. Buhari’s great-grandfather, Yusuf, was a businessman. 

Buhari was four years old When his father died, and Waziri Alhassan, the son of the Emir, Musa dan Nuhu (reigned: 1904–1911), became the guardian of Zulaihat and her six children, including Buhari.

Buhari attended Qur’anic school, where he helped in rearing cattle. He had his primary education in Daura and Mai’Adua, and graduated in 1953. 

He was admitted into Katsina Middle School (later renamed to Katsina Provincial Secondary School), where he had his secondary education from 1956 to 1961. 

During his sixth form, he served as the house captain and headboy of the school. In 1960, he was awarded scholarship by the Elder Dempster Lines for a summer visit to the United Kingdom.

Buhari wanted to pursue a medical degree to become a doctor, however, the only option at the time was to study Pharmacology at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology in Zaria, which would take him many years. 

He was advised by Mamman Daura to join the Nigerian military and pursue higher education there. 

Inspired by the then junior officer Hassan Katsina, who took young boys in Katsina State, including Buhari, on night hikes, where they camped under the stars.

*Military career

In 1962, at the age of 19, Buhari was one of 70 boys selected for recruitment into the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC). In February 1964, NMTC was upgraded to an officer commissioning unit of the Nigerian Army and was renamed Nigerian Defence Academy. 

From 1962 to 1963, Buhari underwent officer cadet training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England. In January 1963, at the age of 20, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria, and attended the Platoon Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian Military Training College, Kaduna, Kaduna State, from November 1963 to January 1964. In 1964, he further moved to the Mechanical Transport Officer’s Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, United Kingdom, among other military postings.

*Nigerian Civil War

Buhari was assigned to the 1st Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Shuwa.

The division had temporarily moved from Kaduna to Makurdi at the onset of the Nigerian Civil War. 

The 1st division was divided into sectors and battalions, with Shuwa assisted by sector commanders Martin Adamu and Sule Apollo, who was later replaced by Theophilus Danjuma. 

He first served as the Adjutant and Company Commander 2 battalion unit, Second Sector Infantry of the 1st Division. 

The 2 battalion was one of the units that participated in the first actions of the war: they started from Gakem near Afikpo and moved towards Ogoja, with support from Gado Nasko’s artillery squad. 

They reached and captured Ogoja, with the intention of advancing through the flanks to Enugu, the capital city. He was briefly the 2 battalion’s Commander and led the battalion to Afikpo to merge with the 3rd Marine Commando and advance towards Enugu through Nkalagu and Abakaliki. 

However, before the move to Enugu, he was posted to Nsukka as Brigade Major of the 3rd Infantry Brigade under Joshua Gin, who was later replaced by Isa Bukar.

Buhari stayed with the infantry for a few months as the Nigerian army began to adjust tactics learnt from early battle experiences. 

Instead of swift advances, the new tactics involved securing and holding on to the lines of communications and using captured towns as training ground to train new recruits brought in from the army depots in Abeokuta and Zaria. 

In 1968, he was posted to the 4 Sector, also called the Awka sector, which was charged with taking over the capture of Onitsha from Division 2. 

The sector’s operations were within the Awka-Abagana-Onitsha region, which was important to Biafran forces because it was a major source of food supply. 

It was in the sector that Buhari’s group suffered a lot of casualties trying to protect the food supplies route of the rebels along Oji River and Abagana.

*After the war

From 1970 to 1971, Buhari was Brigade Major/Commandant, 31 Infantry Brigade. He then served as the Assistant Adjutant-General, 1st Infantry Division Headquarters, from 1971 to 1972. 

He also attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973. From 1974 to 1975 Buhari was acting director of Transport and Supply at the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport Headquarters.

In the 1975 military coup d’état, Lieutenant Colonel Buhari was among a group of officers that brought General Murtala Mohammed to power. 

He was later appointed Governor of the North-Eastern State from 1 August 1975 to 3 February 1976, to oversee social, economic and political improvements in the state. On 3 February 1976, the North Eastern State was divided into three states Bauchi, Borno and Gongola. Buhari then became the first Governor of Borno State from 3 February 1976 to 15 March 1976.

In March 1976, following the botched 1976 military coup d’état attempt which led to the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, his deputy General Olusegun Obasanjo became the military head of state and appointed Colonel Buhari as the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources (now minister).

 In 1977, when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was created, Buhari was appointed as its chairman, a position he held until 1978.

*Divisional commands held in the Nigerian Army

General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division: August 1980 – January 1981[39]
General Officer Commanding, 2nd Mechanised Infantry Division: January 1981 – October 1981
General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armed Division: October 1981 – December 1983
Coup d’état of 1983.

*1983 Nigerian coup d’état

Major-General Buhari was one of the leaders of the military coup of December 1983 that overthrew the Second Nigerian Republic. At the time of the coup plot, Buhari was the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Third Armoured Division of Jos. With the successful execution of the coup by General Buhari, Tunde Idiagbon was appointed Chief of General Staff (the de facto No. 2 in the administration). The coup ended Nigeria’s short-lived Second Republic, a period of multi-party democracy revived in 1979, after 13 years of military rule.

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