Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s former military dictator and two-term democratically elected president, has died. He passed away on July 13 at a clinic in London. He was 82. 

Across the country, reactions to Buhari’s death are deeply divided. Depending on what he represented to each person — how his policies as both a military ruler and elected president impacted their lives, and personal beliefs about speaking ill of the dead — some Nigerians are mourning, while others are quietly or openly rejoicing over his demise. 

In Kano, Buhari’s strongest base by raw vote count in both the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections, crowds were seen on the streets celebrating news of his death. Offline and online, Nigerians remain sharply divided over how the former president should be remembered.

Alive or dead, Buhari remained a polarising figure, representing different things to different people. To some, he fought to keep the country united. To others, he was the Divider-in-Chief, accused of running a nepotistic government, and the Tormentor-in-Chief whose leadership brought hardship, first as a military dictator, and later, even more suffering, insecurity and violence as an elected president. 

Born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, Buhari’s life would span two different eras of Nigeria’s political history: the age of military rule and the dawn of civil rule. 

In his first coming as a military dictator, Buhari cultivated the image of a fearless anti-corruption crusader. But in his second coming as a civilian president, that image faltered. Under his characteristic aloofness, corruption thrived around him. 

Also, as a president, his legacy was as polarising as it was consequential, especially for those who bore the brunt of his policies. His administration championed themes of anti-corruption, frugality, and national unity, but these ideals were often selectively applied. 

Early education and military career

The twenty-third child of a Fulani chief and farmer, at age 13, Buhari entered Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College, Katsina), where he completed his education in 1961. Shortly after, a respected civil servant and friend to his father persuaded him to join the military — a decision that would shape the rest of his life. 

He enrolled in the Nigerian Military Training College (which later became the Nigerian Defence Academy) in Kaduna after the aforementioned family friend sponsored his application. A year later, he was sent to Aldershot in England for further military training.

By the late 1970s, Buhari had steadily risen through the ranks — from major to colonel, and eventually brigadier. As the civilian administration of Shehu Shagari teetered under the weight of corruption and economic mismanagement, the military staged a coup. On December 31, 1983, Buhari emerged from the coup as Nigeria’s new head of state, effectively truncating the so-called Second Republic that began in 1979. 

Buhari’s iron rule and lawlessness

Buhari’s rule was marked by recalcitrance and contradiction. His regime launched the War Against Indiscipline, a campaign that enforced everything from punctuality in the civil service to orderly queues at bus stops. Yet, while he preached discipline, he practised lawlessness, with his government often operating outside the bounds of the law. 

The most infamous example was the attempted abduction of Umaru Dikko, a former transport minister and fierce critic of the regime. In 1984, Nigerian intelligence agents tried to smuggle him out of London in a crate passed off as a diplomatic consignment. The plan failed, sparking international outrage and exposing a military regime willing to violate the law in pursuit of political revenge.

Economically, Buhari was clueless in matters of governance. As a military ruler, he imposed harsh price controls and restricted imports in a bid to preserve foreign exchange. These policies suffocated businesses, accelerated black market prices, and eroded public confidence. In response to the growing public outcry, his regime blamed unidentified middlemen, clamped down on civil liberties and jailed journalists. 

Though he claimed to be waging a war against corruption, his approach was often seen as selective and hypocritical. In 1984, his regime introduced a currency change policy aimed at curbing counterfeiting and money laundering. The initiative required all old banknotes to be exchanged within a limited timeframe, with strict border and airport checks to prevent the movement of undeclared cash. 

During this same period, an emir arrived at the Kano airport with 53 bulging suitcases, which critics alleged were filled with cash. Buhari’s aide-de-camp, Major Mustapha Jokolo, reportedly flew in from Lagos to personally facilitate the emir’s clearance through Customs. 

However, one of Buhari’s most overlooked achievements as a military leader was his decisive and forceful suppression of the Maitatsine Islamist uprisings in the North. a security operation that, though brutal, brought temporary calm to a turbulent region. 

Despite this, Buhari’s military government grew unpopular, even within the armed forces. In August 1985, he was overthrown in a palace coup led by his Chief of Army Staff, General Ibrahim Babangida, bringing an end to his first chapter on Nigeria’s political stage. 

Democracy and the return of the soldier

For the next 15 years, Buhari largely led a life of relative obscurity, emerging only occasionally to criticise government corruption or voice concerns over issues affecting the North. 

In 2003, he re-emerged as a civilian politician, contesting for president under the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). During his campaigns, his personality and rhetoric were deeply polarising, often fueling a violent support base after each electoral defeat. 

After Goodluck Jonathan won the 2011 presidential election, Mr Buhari’s refusal to accept defeat sparked a riot that left dozens of civilians dead across the northern region, including most famously young graduates on national service.

Following three failed attempts, his fourth run proved successful. In 2015, buoyed by public anger against Jonathan’s floundering administration and corruption scandals, Buhari won the presidency under the All Progressives Congress (APC) — a coalition of strange bedfellows united only by ambition to unseat the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

The symbolism was potent: a former military ruler returning with a democratic mandate. Yet, the pattern was the same. In words and deeds, the former dictator — now a self-proclaimed ‘changed democrat’ — had merely swapped his military uniform for an agbada. 

A ‘changed democrat’ with a dictator’s DNA

Buhari’s presidency, from 2015 to 2023, was haunted by his past. 

He governed with a familiar air of detachment and showed little tolerance for dissent. In the Southeast, his old antagonism toward the Igbo appeared scarcely concealed. He referred to the Southeast — where the Igbo are located — as a “dot in a circle”, dismissed the Igbo who did not vote for him as “five per cent”, and appeared to govern with little regard for the region’s deep historical grievances.

His pursuit of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), culminated in a covert operation that led to Kanu’s abduction from Kenya in 2021 — a move widely condemned as a violation of international law. A federal judge in Kenya recently ruled the operation was illegal. Under Buhari’s watch, the military — operating under the guise of Operation Python Dance — carried out brutal crackdowns in the Southeast, resulting in the deaths of many young Igbo, often labelled as IPOB members. 

In October 2020, Buhari’s government responded to the #EndSARS protests — a youth-led movement against police brutality — with force. In Lagos, soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. Despite several eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence, the government denied wrongdoing. Buhari’s silence, followed by a vague and evasive address, only deepened public outrage and widened the emotional scars. 

His government’s response to the 2015 massacre of Shiites in Zaria — where hundreds of men, women and children were killed by the army — was muted, if not complicit. This was in contrast to his passive, hands-off approach to violent attacks by Fulani groups, further fueling accusations of bias.

Then came the RUGA programme — a government initiative to allocate land across Nigeria for Fulani herdsmen. Critics saw it as a thinly veiled land-grab with ethnic undertones, disguised as a revival of old grazing routes. The move further inflamed already fragile ethnic relations across the country. 

In his pursuit of justice, Buhari was often accused of selective enforcement. He appeared indifferent to the atrocities committed by violent herdsmen from his Fulani ethnic group, with his government at times offering justifications for their actions. In contrast, his administration routinely disobeyed court orders, detained critics arbitrarily, and overlooked qualified southerners in favour of northerners who shared his ethnic and religious background.

In 2016, Justice Walter Onnoghen, the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court, was next in line to become Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) following the retirement of Justice Mahmud Mohammed. However, Buhari delayed his confirmation for months, leaving him in an acting capacity throughout that period. 

It wasn’t until 2017, during Buhari’s medical leave, that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo pushed the Senate to confirm Onnoghen as the CJN. But in 2019, just months before the presidential election, Buhari, using an auxiliary administrative agency under the executive, suspended Onnoghen as chief justice over purported asset declaration violations. Onnoghen, a Christian southerner, was promptly replaced with Tanko Muhammad, a northerner and Muslim like Mr Buhari. 

In September 2018, Buhari bypassed Matthew Seiyefa — a Christian southerner and the most senior officer at the time — who had served briefly as acting Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS). Instead, he appointed Yusuf Magaji Bichi, a Muslim northerner.

Buhari, the myth and the flaw

Despite these failings, many Nigerians — especially from the North — continued to view Buhari as a symbol of enduring probity. Though widely criticised as one-sided, his anti-corruption campaign delivered a few notable results. His government fought — and won — a major legal battle against Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), a shadowy firm that sought to defraud Nigeria of $11 billion through a rigged public utility contract. 

His administration also made modest strides in social investment. The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, led by Osinbajo, provided meals to millions of schoolchildren while creating a value chain that supported smallholder farmers. It stood out as one of the few initiatives that, while it lasted, effectively combined social welfare and economic sense.

One could argue that Buhari was, in some ways, twice an unlucky president — assuming power both times during periods of severe national crisis. Just as in 1983, when he took office again in 2015, global oil prices had already crashed, federal revenues were in sharp decline, and the government was struggling to meet basic obligations like salary payments. 

At the time, more than two-thirds of state governments were in arrears, unable to meet their payroll obligations. Buhari’s administration introduced bailout measures to keep them afloat. By 2016, oil prices had fallen below Nigeria’s production cost, deepening the fiscal crisis. Just as the economy began to show signs of recovery between 2018 and 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delivering another severe blow. 

A country divided, a legacy undecided

Buhari’s end could be summarised as a paradox of how he (mis)governed Nigeria. As his health diminished, he failed to disclose his condition to Nigerians. 

He was frequently in the UK for medical treatment while battling an ailment he refused to disclose to citizens who were funding the bill. He failed to build a single worthwhile hospital during either of his two terms in power. And as soon as he fell ill in his last days, he was ferried again to London, ostensibly to the same facility where he was managed in secret for eight years as president.

Having largely withdrawn from public life after leaving office in May 2023, his last official act was when he was compelled to testify in a corruption trial before a Paris courtroom. Buhari’s death has reignited debates over his legacy: Was he the principled military ruler who tried to cleanse Nigeria of corruption, or the rigid autocrat who presided over a deeply divisive government? 

What remains undeniable is that Buhari — much like the two eras of Nigerian leadership he helped shape — was deeply flawed. His tenure, whether in military uniform or agbada, was defined by a strong sense of personal moral conviction, often undercut by ethnic bias and a pattern of selective justice.

In the final tally, Buhari’s life reflects the story of a man who returned to power but never truly changed — and of a country whose electorate gave him a second chance to lead, only to be dealt the prior fate of divisive rhetoric and selectively applied policies.