Muhammadu Buhari died Sunday in London, where he had been receiving medical treatment.
He first took power in Africa’s most populous nation in 1983 after a military coup, running an authoritarian regime until fellow soldiers ousted him less than 20 months later. When he was elected in 2015 on his fourth attempt, he became the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election there.
Buhari rode to power on a wave of goodwill, having promised to rid Nigeria of chronic corruption and a deadly security crisis. He led until 2023, during a period marked by Boko Haram’s extremist violence in the northeast and a plunging economy.
Current President Bola Tinubu, in a statement, described Buhari as “a patriot, a soldier, a statesman … to the very core.” Tinubu dispatched the vice president to bring Buhari’s body home from London.
Others across Nigeria remembered Buhari as a president who left the country of more than 200 million people — divided between a largely Muslim north and Christian south — more polarized than before.
“The uneven response to Buhari’s death, with muted disillusionment in some quarters and sadness in others, reflects how difficult it is to unite a country — and his inability to do so after decades in the public eye,” said Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, an Abuja-based political scientist.
Coming from Nigeria’s north, the lanky, austere Buhari had vowed to end extremist killings and clean up rampant corruption in one of Africa’s largest economies and oil producers.
By the end of his eight-year tenure, however, goodwill toward him had faded into discontent. Insecurity had worsened, and corruption was more widespread.
Nigeria also fell into recession amid slumping global oil prices and attacks by militants in the sprawling, oil-rich Niger Delta region. The currency faltered as Buhari pursued unorthodox monetary policies to defend its fixed exchange rate to the dollar, worsening a massive foreign currency shortage. Inflation remained in double digits.
Civil society accused him of authoritarian tendencies after protesters were killed during demonstrations against police brutality, and over his decision to restrict access to social media as young people vented frustrations over economic and security problems.
Buhari’s efforts to manage these crises were complicated by prolonged medical stays abroad. His absences, with few details provided, created anxiety among Nigerians and prompted calls for his replacement. There was also anger over his reliance on taxpayer-funded health care overseas while millions suffered from poor medical facilities at home.
“I need a longer time to rest,” the president once said in a rare comment during his time away.
His presidency saw a rare bright moment in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram — the safe return of dozens of Chibok schoolgirls seized in a mass abduction in 2014 that drew global attention.
But thousands of others abducted by Boko Haram over the years remain missing — a powerful symbol of the government’s failure to protect civilians.
At the end of 2016, Buhari announced that the extremist group had been crushed, driven by the military from its remote strongholds.
“The terrorists are on the run and no longer have a place to hide,” he boasted.
But suicide bombings and other attacks remained a threat, and the military’s fight against Boko Haram was further undermined by allegations of abuses by troops against civilians. In early 2017, the accidental military bombing of a displaced persons camp in the northeast killed more than 100 people, including aid workers. The U.N. refugee chief called the killings “truly catastrophic.”
As Nigeria’s military reclaimed more territory from Boko Haram’s control, a vast humanitarian crisis was revealed. Aid groups began alerting the world to people dying from malnutrition, even as government officials denied the crisis and accused aid groups of exaggerating the situation to attract donations.
The extremist threat and humanitarian crisis in the northeast — now exacerbated by U.S. aid cuts under the Trump administration — continue today.
Years earlier, as Nigeria’s military ruler, Buhari oversaw a regime that executed drug dealers, returned looted state assets, and sent soldiers to the streets with whips to enforce traffic laws. With oil prices slumping and Nigerians claiming foreigners were depriving them of jobs, his regime also ordered an estimated 700,000 illegal immigrants to leave the country.
Meanwhile, government workers arriving late to their offices were forced to perform squats in a “war against indiscipline” that won many followers. Buhari’s administration, however, was also criticized by rights groups for detaining journalists critical of the government and for passing laws that allowed indefinite detention without trial.
As he later pursued the presidency, Buhari said he had undergone radical changes and now championed democracy. But some of his past positions continued to haunt him, including statements in the 1980s that he would introduce Islamic law across Nigeria.
Source: Africa News
