By Alabi Williams / Posted July 21, 2025
So much has been said and written on the life and times of General Muhammadu Buhari. One is tempted to be indifferent and look for something else to say.
Those who worked with him have documented their positive impressions as well as those who think the man didn’t do too well, despite the opportunities and privileges Nigeria made available to him.
Subscribe To The Best Team In Conservative, Business, Technology, Lifestyle And Digital News Realtime! support@ddnewsonline.com
On a second thought, the passage of Buhari is a major event in Nigeria’s political history. He was not an ordinary man. He accomplished a remarkable career in the military and ended with politics, where he was a big name and great influencer. For the sake of history and learning, more perspectives on the great man could help. It’s not an opportunity to miss.
One’s earliest recollection of the Buhari persona was during the sacking of Shehu Shagari’s civilian government in December 1983. That Second Republic political experience had become unpopular due to corruption and bad governance. As if the floundering economy and hardship was not bad enough, the rampant electoral corruption of that year heightened the disillusionment among the populace.
That combination primed the system for a revolution. When General Buhari and his Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, General Tunde Idiagbon arrived the scene, there was jubilation.
The coming of the military at the time was presented as messianic. The coup message resonated with the people, who unfortunately, had enough of the political class just after four years of transfer of power. The military’s initial actions and policies appeared populists and on the side of the people. They broke into stalls where essential commodities were hoarded, to sell to ordinary folks at government-controlled prices.
To partake in that process, Nigerians were enrolled in the queue culture. The War Against Indiscipline (WAI), was launched to correct social misbehaviour in the public space. Schools, banks and public places became avenues of mass mobilisation for ethical reorientation. It appeared like an opportunity for a rebirth.
However, in the rights community, Buhari and Idiagbon were not popular. For the government to function without checks, it abrogated the 1979 Constitution and ruled with decrees. The Decree 2 of 1984, also known as the State Security (Detention of Persons) law granted powers to security operatives, on behalf of government, to detain individuals that constituted security risk to the state.
Subscribe To The Best Team In Conservative, Business, Technology, Lifestyle And Digital News Realtime! support@ddnewsonline.com
Such persons, when apprehended were locked up without charge for three months or more. The media, particularly loathed Decree 4, which forbade publication or transmission of any false statement that could ridicule or discredit the government or public officers. It was the government that determined what was false. Most alarming were decrees drafted to punish economic saboteurs and drug offenders. Death penalty applied to such cases upon conviction in tribunals that did not represent fair trial.
Despite their claim of nationalistic and patriotic pursuits, Buhari and Idiagbon soon lost touch with the people. Their efforts to sanitise the country and recreate the economy in line with the ideals of social justice failed to motivate the people. The notion of the worst of democracy being better than the best of military rule became the mantra as citizens detested the regime’s high-handedness and lack of human face.
The quick-witted General Ibrahim Babangida, who had his ear to the ground, got the reading right and instigated the August 1985 palace coup that ousted Buhari. Buhari was put under house arrest after the bloodless palace coup for three years, from August 1985 to December 1988 and he retreated to Daura where he minded his cattle, away from the klieg lights. The opportunity to recreate the economy and the Nigerian society to reflect Buhari’s idea of social justice and equity was lost. Buhari was betrayed and his ego was crushed.
When Buhari agreed to head Abacha’s Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the interventionist outfit put together to manage savings from the removal of petrol subsidy in 1994, many thought the assignment would belittle his credentials. Yet, without the advantage of procurement laws and transparency institutions that are in place today, PTF managed to deliver roads and other social infrastructure to a degree that mocks today’s mismanagement of subsidy savings. Many roads were opened up and social facilities like hospitals, water and educational got concrete support.
However, the final audit of PTF disbursements and activities proved Buhari didn’t have his eyes on details. Under him and despite his well-known preference for prudence, the Interim Management Company (IMC) that closed the PTF chapter revealed that of the N144.51 billion it got for the years it existed, N25 billion could not be accounted for. Perhaps, it was not a direct indictment on Buhari, but it mattered that under his watch, such sums could fly away unnoticed.
Subscribe To The Best Team In Conservative, Business, Technology, Lifestyle And Digital News Realtime! support@ddnewsonline.com
Layers under his supervision were certainly porous, and the onus was his to ensure that every staff and contractor was accountable. That gave an inkling that in matters of public accountability, perhaps, individual integrity is not enough. Pressure will weigh in from all sides and that’s the real test; the ability to deny self, family and friends.
Buhari’s next outing after PTF was an encounter he had with the former governor of Oyo State, Lam Adesina in 2000. The report was that herdsmen and farming communities in Oke Ogun clashed, which resulted in casualties. Buhari was reported to have confronted Adesina over the death of some Fulani in that encounter. Before then, Buhari’s patriotic and nationalist credentials were weighed against the risks he took in the civil war and the roles he played in coups that sought to put the nation united. Many Nigerians regarded Buhari as a nationalist, but that meeting with Adesina presented him as an ethnic champion.
The military training Buhari had, like for others, prepared them for nationalist tasks. The military is perhaps the only patriotic organisation in the country, in doctrine and tradition. The average soldier thinks of the territorial integrity of Nigeria. Their tour of duty prepares them to have a good knowledge of the country and to feel at home in whatever part. They are not trained to be patriots of ethnic or regional associations. As president, Obasanjo fought militant wings of all regional groups, including Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC). He did not spare anyone.
When Buhari decided to venture into politics and hustle for presidential authority, many were not convinced he had the temperament and patience to mingle with politicians and flow with their deceptive ways. There were worries too if he had been sufficiently demilitarised to surrender to constituted party authorities.
In 2003, Buhari ran for the office of president. He was defeated. He didn’t give up. He tried again in 2007 and 2011. In between, he expressed anger at the system, the way politicians do. He also threatened to cause mayhem if he suspected he was rigged out. His ardent supporters heeded his call after the 2011 presidential election, which he lost.
They rioted across the North and hundreds of casualties were documented. Buhari was not prosecuted because the Goodluck Jonathan government didn’t have the courage. Such was the herd following and reverence Buhari enjoyed among predominantly poor and average citizens of the North. The real power brokers loathed his personality and audacity.
Subscribe To The Best Team In Conservative, Business, Technology, Lifestyle And Digital News Realtime! support@ddnewsonline.com
When his minders realised that pursuing politics of narrow and ethnic interests couldn’t fetch him the presidency, they must have reasoned that he couldn’t go far unless he loosened up. He rebranded and that paid off when he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC). At his inauguration on May 29, 2015, President Buhari made the pledge to be president of all and for no one in particular. Nigerians were happy, that the opportunity had come to build a new country on the basis of justice, equity and accountability.
But when Buhari began to select members of his kitchen cabinet, he began to walk back on his inauguration day promise. He went for closet allies in his former Congress for Progressives Change (CPC). Even the larger cabinet, which took months to assemble did not impress. Parochialism and clannishness began to manifest and Nigeria lost the opportunity for a national government.
President Buhari’s best known credential of incorruptibility began to fall apart, not far into his presidency. The anti-corruption agencies he met on ground began to wobble. Instead of reinforcing EFCC to give it more energy and independence, persons in the Presidency preferred to manipulate and remote-control the leadership.
The Commission was unstable for the eight years of the Buhari administration, because the Office of Attorney General exerted and peddled unwholesome influence, which the leadership under Ibrahim Magu agency made efforts to resist. Corruption thrived.
Under Buhari’s nose, influence peddling was rife. There was a certain officer (private secretary/nephew to the president), who was reported to have made good money for himself, just by monetising influence. Even the Office of First Lady that had no budgetary provision once alleged that a certain Sani Baba-Inna, a Chief Superintendent of Police and ADC, made away with N2.5 billion, being donations from politicians and business people he collected on behalf of the First Lady.
All a First Lady needed was to initiate a pet project, then governors and corporate individuals will pour in surplus cash. But there was no accountability for such slush funds. It happens in every regime, but Nigerians looked up to Mr Integrity (Buhari) to sanitise the country, by letting charity begin at home. We lost that opportunity. Corruption now walks on four legs.
Subscribe To The Best Team In Conservative, Business, Technology, Lifestyle And Digital News Realtime! support@ddnewsonline.com
Another area of great opportunity that was lost has to do with insecurity. General Buhari promised to decimate terrorists. He didn’t. He left the situation worse than he met it. Buhari was largely indifferent as terrorists killed hundreds all over the country. He did not bring back Leah Sharibu from captivity. He couldn’t bring back majority of the Chibok girls. Schools became unsafe under his watch.
In Buhari, Nigeria missed an opportunity to experience transformative leadership. His initial ideological orientation and military career pointed at a man destined to cause a positive shift in the country’s fortune. He managed to start a good sail and the winds favoured him. But he didn’t go far.
Note: This article was first published by The Guardian Newspaper.
Opinions expressed by Columnists/Contributors is theirs and do NOT necessarily reflect the views of DDNewsonline.com