I received this evening with unspeakable grief the report of the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari. He was the immediate past Nigerian president under whom I served as the Minister of Interior in his second term in office. He was 82 years old.
President Buhari was a gallant military officer who held several commands with distinction. He was reputed to have led Nigerian troops to pursue and decimate a neighbouring rebel group that encroached on Nigerian territory, among his other military exploits.
On December 31, 1983, he led a military coup that put paid to the second republic after the democratic system had broken down. He was toppled in another coup on May 27, 1985.
But he came back on a redemption mission again in 2015 when the democratic system was roiling, this time as a civilian president.
As president, he had a soft demeanour but with a steely resolve. He had a didactive grasp of all issues of governance. What cut through his disposition and policies was concern for the Nigerian people. He was willing to make any sacrifice necessary to serve Nigeria.
The charging order of the administration was that no policy or act of government must hurt the Nigerian people. He was kind and understanding.
President Buhari had a severe sickness in 2017 that kept him in hospital for a considerable time, but he survived and bounced back strongly to continue his administration. He won re-election for a second term which he completed in 2023 and retired to a quiet life.
He was tenacious, resilient and indefatigable, having contested and lost the presidential election in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and then won it in 2015.
However, his date with eternal destiny, it turns out, is a battle he could not win and has now gone the way of all mortals.
President Buhari has left an indelible legacy in Nigeria in his two stints as national leader, not just for his intolerance of corruption in government, but for his personal integrity as well. He was frugal and abstemious.
He was a good and honourable man.
He will be greatly missed.
My deepest condolences to the people of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian Government, the good people and Government and of Katsina State, his family and especially his wife, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, his friends and well-wishers. May God grant them his comfort, peace and the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.
I have directed that condolence registers be opened for him at the Oranmiyan House, Osogbo and Ilesa.
May Almighty Allah forgive his sins, grant him Aljana Firdaus and unending comfort in his next estate.
Ameen.
𝗢𝗴𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗶 𝗥𝗮𝘂𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗯𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮
