President Buhari clocks 80 today, and Daily News24 brings you his biographyÂ
Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) is Nigeria’s president who has served as the country’s president since 2015.
Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country’s military head of state from December 31, 1983, to August 27, 1985, following a military coup.
Buhari ran for Nigerian president three times: in 2003, 2007, and 2011. In December 2014, he was announced as the All Progressives Congress party’s presidential candidate for the 2015 general election. Buhari defeated incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the election.
It was the first time in Nigerian history that an incumbent president lost a general election. On May 29, 2015, he was sworn in. Buhari was re-elected in February 2019, defeating his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by over 3 million votes.
Early LifeÂ
Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in Katsina State, to a Fulani family. His father was Mallam Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chieftain from Dumurkul in Mai’Adua, and his mother was Zulaihat, who had Hausa and Kanuri ancestry.
He is his father’s twenty-third child and was named after the ninth-century Persian Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Bukhari.
Buhari was raised by his mother after his father died when he was about four years old. He attended primary school in Daura and Mai’adua, Katsina Middle School in 1953, and Katsina Provincial Secondary School in Katsina State from 1956 to 1961.
Military Career
Buhari enrolled in the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) in 1962, at the age of 19.
Buhari received officer cadet training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England, from 1962 to 1963. Buhari was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned as Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in January 1963, at the age of 20. Buhari attended the Platoon Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna from November 1963 to January 1964.
Buhari was commander of the Second Infantry Battalion from 1965 to 1967 and brigade major, Second Sector, First Infantry Division, from April to July 1967. Following the bloody 1966 Nigerian coup that resulted in the assassination of Premier Ahmadu Bello.
Lieutenant Buhari, along with several young officers from Northern Nigeria, took part in the July counter-coup that deposed General Aguiyi Ironsi and installed General Yakubu Gowon in his place.
During the civil war, Buhari was assigned to the 1st Division, which had been temporarily relocated from Kaduna to Makurdi at the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War.
Buhari was Brigade Major/Commander of the Thirty-first Infantry Brigade after the war, from 1970 to 1971. From 1971 to 1972, he was the Assistant Adjutant-General, First Infantry Division Headquarters.
He served as Head of State from 1983 to 1985, and the structure of the new military leadership, the fifth in Nigeria since independence, resembled the previous military regime, the Obasanjo/Yaradua administration. A Supreme Military Council, a Federal Executive Council, and a Council of States were established by the new regime.
As a Civilian
After his mother died in December 1988, he was released and returned to his home in Daura. His farm was managed by his relatives while he was in detention. In 1988, he divorced his first wife and married Aisha Halilu.
In Katsina, he was the founding chairman of the Katsina Foundation, which was established to promote social and economic development in Katsina State.
Buhari was the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), a body established by General Sani Abacha’s government and funded by the increased price of petroleum products to pursue development projects across the country. A 1998 report in New African praised the PTF under Buhari for its transparency, calling it a rare “success story”.
Political CareerÂ
Buhari ran for president of Nigeria in 2003 as the All Nigeria People’s Party’s candidate (ANPP). He was defeated by President Olusgun Basanj of the People’s Democratic Party by over 11 million votes.
Buhari was nominated as the All Nigeria People’s Party’s consensus candidate on December 18, 2006. In the April 2007 elections, his main opponent was the ruling PDP candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua, who was also from Katsina. Officially, Buhari received 18% of the vote to Yar’Adua’s 70%, but Buhari rejected these results.
Buhari left the ANPP in March 2010 to join the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party he helped found. He said that he had supported foundation of the CPC “as a solution to the debilitating, ethical and ideological conflicts in my former party the ANPP”.
Buhari ran against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 election as the CPC Presidential candidate, but lost.
Buhari ran in the 2015 presidential election as a candidate of the All Progressives Congress party and won. He is currently the president of Nigeria and is in his second (Last) tenure.
According to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, 18 million ($73,000) per annum is his take-home pay,
