Muhammadu Buhari (1942 — 2025): A man of few words who lived many lifetimes in one

Oluwatosin Ogunjuyigbe

By the time Muhammadu Buhari took his final breath in a London hospital on July 13, 2025, he had lived three Nigerian lifetimes: soldier, strongman, and statesman.

He was 82. His death brings to a close one of the most unusual arcs in Nigerian political history — a man who ruled Nigeria with iron hands in the ’80s, then returned three decades later with the promise of democratic renewal, only to become, again, a symbol of rigid power and distant leadership.

But for his supporters — and they were many, sometimes fanatically so — Buhari was the man who meant well in a country where meaning well felt like a miracle in itself.

A Soldier Born of Sand and Steel

Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in the dusty town of Daura, in today’s Katsina State. He was the 23rd child of his father, a Fulani herdsman. He was raised by his mother in the conservative Muslim North. That early austerity shaped his worldview, one that would remain steeped in discipline, simplicity, and a deep skepticism about excess.

He joined the Nigerian military at 19 and found a home in its hierarchy and order. His name began to circulate during the Nigerian Civil War, where he commanded troops and gained a reputation as serious, quiet, and incorruptible. Those three words would come to define his public image — or, depending on who you asked, his illusion.

Coup, Crackdowns, and the “War Against Indiscipline”

In 1983, at the height of Nigeria’s economic malaise and political disillusionment, Buhari staged a coup that ousted the civilian government of Shehu Shagari. It was one of Nigeria’s bleakest democratic interludes, but many welcomed the takeover. The country was tired of excess and graft. And Buhari, lean and grim, was the opposite of bloated governance.

Then came his campaign: the War Against Indiscipline — a militarised moral code that saw Nigerians made to queue in straight lines, forced to respect the flag, and sometimes flogged for tardiness.

Corrupt officials were jailed (some without trial). Journalists were detained. The press was muzzled. “Crude but effective,” said some. “A dictator in everything but name,” said others.

He lasted just 20 months. In 1985, he was overthrown by his own Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Babangida. Humiliated but unbowed, Buhari withdrew from public life — a recluse in Kaduna — where, for years, he nursed surprising ambition: to return, this time through the ballot.

A Reluctant Democrat, A Relentless Candidate

If Buhari’s first reign was abrupt, his second was anything but so.

From 2003 to 2011, he ran in the presidential election and lost. Each defeat was met with stoic determination and a kind of martyrdom in the North, where he was revered almost as a messiah. His face adorned prayer mats and posters. When he finally won in 2015 — defeating incumbent Goodluck Jonathan — it was not just a personal victory. It was a historic first: the peaceful ousting of a sitting Nigerian president.

His rebranding was helped by a slick campaign and a coalition of unlikely allies — including Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who would later succeed him. Buhari was now the face of “change.” He promised to kill corruption, defeat Boko Haram, and restore Nigeria’s lost dignity.

Ten years later, the record is mixed and bitterly debated.

A Presidency Marked by Stillness Amid Storms

In office, Buhari often governed like he was still in the barracks — slow to communicate, reluctant to compromise, and famously unbothered by criticism. His silence during crises became a national meme. When protests rocked the country — whether over fuel prices, currency redesigns, or police brutality — the president rarely spoke swiftly or clearly.

His economic stewardship drew mixed reviews. He inherited a collapsing oil market and faced two recessions in eight years. Unemployment soared, inflation bit into the poorest homes, and the naira became the punchline in jokes. Yet under him, Nigeria also saw a surge in infrastructure — highways, rail lines, bridges — financed heavily through Chinese loans and Eurobonds.

Muhammadu Buhari declared victory over Boko Haram more times than the group was actually defeated. Still, in his first term, the terror group’s dominance in the Northeast waned. But in his second term, insecurity metastasised: banditry in the North-West, farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt, secessionist agitations in the Southeast, and a general sense that Nigeria was being held together with prayer and tape.

Then came #EndSARS — the youth-led protest against police brutality that spiralled into a national reckoning. His government’s response — delayed, defensive, and ultimately repressive — may have sealed his image among Nigeria’s younger generation as that of a man out of step with the times.

Legacy

To some, Buhari was Nigeria’s conscience — a man of lean tastes and incorruptible spine in a country drowning in excess. He refused ostentation, avoided flashy parties, and reportedly lived modestly even as head of state.

To others, he was an absentee landlord — a leader who governed by delegation, who disappeared for long stretches (often to London for medical treatment), and whose aloofness felt like abandonment.

An Unquiet Departure

Buhari’s final years were quieter. After handing over power in May 2023 to Bola Tinubu, his longtime political ally, he retreated from public life to his hometown in Daura. But the controversies never truly left him. Neither did the reverence from his northern base.

Buhari died where he often went for treatment: London. A city he never made peace with publicly, but one that witnessed many of his most intimate, human moments — illness, recovery, ageing, and now death.

BusinessDay NG