Late Former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari
It’s illogical when people say we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. This
notion doesn’t hold, because it’s not we who are speaking—rather, it’s the way
the deceased lived their lives that speaks. We are merely the loudspeakers.
Some may view it from a religious perspective.
Even so, the argument remains illogical since religion is founded on truth. If
someone lived in defiance of God's teachings, they would still face judgment,
regardless of public sentiment. So, what we say can stand even before God —as long as what we say is true.
The late President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure as
a military Head of State was short-lived, ending in a coup barely a year after
he came into power. Yet, in that brief time, he managed to convince many
Nigerians that he was the one who could truly confront Nigeria’s most feared
enemy: corruption.
Before returning to power as a civilian
president, Buhari consistently spoke of funds looted and stashed abroad by
corrupt Nigerians—money he claimed could solve Nigeria’s infrastructural problems.
He expressed a desire to recover these funds and use them for the common good.
Nigerians began to see him as a messiah. When critics accused him of being a
tribalist and religious chauvinist, many dismissed those warnings as baseless
opposition from individuals benefiting from the country’s disarray.
Buhari contested the presidency three times
without success. After his third failed attempt in 2011, his supporters
unleashed violence in the northern part of the country, killing hundreds—mostly
Christians—who were seen as obstacles to his ambition. This showed the level of
devotion he commanded, almost elevating him to the status of a prophet.
Earlier, he had ominously warned that if he lost, there would be “bloody dogs and bloody monkeys.” As the
2015 election approached, he repeated that threat. In contrast, then-incumbent
President Goodluck Jonathan declared, “No
ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”
When the 2015 election results were announced,
Buhari was declared the winner. President Jonathan conceded defeat—a rare and
commendable act in Nigerian, and indeed African, politics, where incumbents
rarely lose elections. Jonathan acted as a statesman to prevent a repeat of the
2011 violence.
Buhari’s early days in office seemed to
fulfilled public expectations. But within two years, the trajectory began to
change. His anti-corruption drive became confusing—a case of “the more you see,
the less you understand.” His spokesperson often said the damage done to
Nigeria was deep-rooted and would take time to fix. Eventually, however,
Buhari’s government itself became brazenly
corrupt.
A glaring example was during the COVID-19
lockdown, when the government claimed to have spent billions of naira on school
feeding programs —despite schools being closed. Nigerians asked, “Who were you feeding? Ghosts?” Not a single
major conviction for corruption occurred. Instead, Buhari’s government released
people previously jailed for corruption.
Under his leadership, inflation rose by 175%. By the end of his second term in
2023 Nigeria, once Africa’s largest economy, slipped to fourth place—behind
South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria.
Security deteriorated further. What was termed
the “farmer-herder conflict” masked
widespread violence, where armed groups invaded villages, killing hundreds and
seizing ancestral lands. There were no convictions. Banditry in the northwest
worsened. Armed gangs on motorbikes would attack towns, kill residents, steal
livestock and grains, or abduct people for ransom.
As the country's woes multiplied, Buhari lost
the support of the very people who had once gone to great lengths to defend and
idolize him.
On May
29, President Buhari handed over power to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria’s newly elected president.
On Sunday,
July 13th, 2025, former President Buhari died in a London hospital.
Critics were baffled: How could he fail to build a decent hospital in Nigeria,
only to die in a foreign one that still couldn’t save him? To many, this was
final proof that Buhari had never truly meant well for Nigeria. Most shocking
of all were the crowds in northern Nigeria that flooded the streets —not to mourn, but to thank God for his death
