On July 13, 2025 when the news of the passing on of former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, in a London clinic, hit town, one thing that came to my mind was that God loved this former soldier. I do not say this because the death of Buhari was a good thing. Not at all. Whenever death strikes, no matter the age of the deceased or the circumstance, there is always sorrow and tears. Death brings melancholy.
God loved Buhari by granting him passage at a time when his rating was not very low. Taking a final bow out of life two years after leaving office, the former president died at the best time he could have. The passage of time between May 29, 2023 and July 13, 2025, had shore up the rating of Buhari, especially with what is happening in the country at present because of the actions and inactions of those in government, that his friends and associates should be thanking God that his end came now. It must be said that had Buhari died in office as president of Nigeria, his passing on would have been a somewhat exit of a villain.
Indeed, had Buhari died in office, his case would have been worse than that of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, whose death, in 1998, elicited celebration among Nigerians. It was too bad for Abacha to have died when he did. Dying in office, when Nigerians saw him as the worst thing that happened to them was a tragedy greater than his death. The verdict about Abacha’s personality may not have been right, but Nigerians felt a sense of relief that he died in office.
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When Buhari was in office as President, many Nigerians saw him as their greatest problem. With the cost of living steadily going up at that time and the standard of living going low, people felt that the support they gave Buhari to become president was a mistake. Some of those who stuck out their necks to support Buhari to become the President of Nigeria, believing that he was the “messiah” coming to office to bring about El Dorado, felt betrayed that his government could not make Nigeria better than he met it when he came into office. Buhari who was embraced in 2015, against then President Goodluck Jonathan, was loathed when he left office in 2023. Had he died in office, it would have been too bad for him. He would have died at the wrong time.
However, give it to him, Buhari was a great man. No matter the reservation we may have about his personality and performance as an elected President, he was a man greatly loved. I admired his popularity and massive followings. It is not easy, in a country where ego makes people not to acknowledge the worth of others, for a man to be so popular among his people, to the extent of having a cult following. Buhari was worshipped like a god by those who loved him. And they were in millions. In all his electoral outings, he showed strength. He proved that a man could run election on his name and make a tremendous impact. His popularity and acceptance in the North had nothing to do with his political party affiliation. It was about him, his personality and name, which many politicians exploited to land into elective offices and then started behaving like birds when they were actually political butterflies.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, tried to explain the cult following of Buhari, when he stirred a controversy at the public presentation of a book written by former Special Assistant to the President (Buhari) on Madia and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, entitled: “According to the President.” He had declared that the coalition of political parties in 2014 did not make Buhari president, as he had joined the amalgam of opposition political parties with more than 10 million votes.
Boss Mustapha illustrated this by saying that in all the elections Buhari contested, he recorded massive votes of no fewer than 10 million, except in 2007, against his Katsina brother, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. As controversial as Mustapha’s position was, the fact that cannot be disputed is that Buhari was a movement, which swept through the political firmament of Nigeria like a hurricane, with impact. Sadly, however, the product of that movement, which was Buhari’s government, was an anti-climax.
I would admit that Buhari tried his best for Nigeria. Whether his best was good enough for the country is left for history to judge. What no one will deny is that he served the country in critical positions as a soldier and civilian. He was governor of North Eastern state. He was Minister of Petroleum. He was military Head of State. He was chairman of a federal government interventionist agency, Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), established by one of the men who ousted him from power – General Sani Abacha. He was a two-term elected president of Nigeria. The history of Nigeria would not be written without his name copiously mentioned, having been a recurring decimal in the country’s leadership, from the 1960s until he died this year.
Looking at Buhari’s odyssey, it would not be out of place to say that one should be careful what one wishes. Buhari wished to be an elected president of Nigeria. He contested to be president of Nigeria four times. He failed in the first three attempts, but gave a good account of himself in the elections. He succeeded in the fourth and became president. However, I am persuaded that being president eventually, diminished Buhari instead of elevating him. A very popular figure before he served as elected president became so unpopular that some of his supporters saw his earlier high rating as grossly exaggerated.
Before his death, Buhari, the revered Mai Gaskiya, was remembered as a president who came to office with so much promises about the fight against insecurity but ended up as one whose tenure saw the highest level of insurgency, with the terror groups, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram running riot in Northern Nigeria and seizing territories. Buhari would be remembered as the president under whose tenure banditry had an upsurge in the North. He would be remembered as the president whose ethnicism, clearly seen in the appointments he made in office and body language, towered above his remarkable height. Buhari would be remembered as a president whose courage was suspect, who could not muster the political will to remove fuel subsidy, for instance, even when he acknowledged that it should go, and passed the monkey to his successor to become the fall guy.
I must say this: Had Buhari not become elected president of Nigeria, he would have died as the best leader Nigeria never had. He would have been the greatest hero Nigeria has ever produced, and a saint at that. The mystique that he would have made the country better and that he would have arrested insecurity as well as corruption would have endured. But he blew it by returning to government in a democratic setting.
Buhari’s life and time should serve as a lesson to those currently in office and all people. We should always remember that we will die one day. Buhari is dead but his reputation, good or bad, lives on. His death should serve as a reminder of mortality. His death should encourage reflection on life’s impermanence. His death should help us to learn the importance of living meaningfully.
Let those who are ruling Nigeria or in positions of authority know that a good name is better than power and wealth. Let all men and women know that a good legacy is the greatest reward any man can earn.
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