VICE PRESIDENT, Kashim Shettima and the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, have arrived in London, the United Kingdom, to receive the body of the late President, Muhammadu Buhari, who passed on on Sunday.
The vice president and the chief of staff led the Nigerian delegation to London early Monday.
The Nigerian delegation to the United Kingdom was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum; among others.
President Bola Tinubu had on Sunday directed Shettima and Gbajabiamila to lead the Nigerian delegation to receive the body of his predecessor for burial in Nigeria.
Buhari, whose ramrod-straight posture endeared him to many, died in London on Sunday at about 4.30 pm, following a prolonged illness, though the nature of the illness was not disclosed.
Buhari had fell ill in 2017 and was flown to the UK sometimes early in May of that year and returned later in August of the same year.
Just last week, Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu told Channels Television that though the former president was hospitalised, “it was not as intense as reported. He was hospitalised, and now he is being cared for. He is in a recovery mode”.
“Each day, he gets better, but until it’s all over, you can’t say it is over. He looked much better after leaving the office than before he became president. He is 82, he eats healthy, and exercises regularly.”
Tinubu immediately ordered flags at half-staff as a mark of respect for the departed leader and offered his deep condolences to the family of the late president.
Condolences have since poured in from dignitaries across the country, many who described Buhari as a man of integrity.
Buhari, who hailed from Daura, Katsina State, in Nigeria’s North-West zone served as the country’s military head of state between January 1984 and August 1985.
Known as ‘Baba Buhari’ on the streets of northern Nigeria where he enjoined an unparallel, cult-like following, the late president was a political force that many of his colleagues couldn’t disregard.
With the country’s return to democracy in 1999, Buhari contested for president in 2003, 2007 and 2011 but he lost despite having 12 million votes in each of the elections.
In 2013, his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) joined forces with Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), some factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to birth the All Progressives Congress (APC).
President Muhammadu Buhari greets the crowd in his country home in Daura, Katsina State on July 20, 2021. Credit: State House.
In the 2015 election, riding on their ‘Change’ mantra, Buhari with his running mate Yemi Osinbajo ousted then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and got themselves the much-coveted Aso Villa spot.
Both Buhari and Osinbajo were sworn in on May 29, 2015 and returned elected on May 29, 2019. Their victory was the first time in the Fourth Republic that an opposition defeated an incumbent president and the party in power. Both men handed over to their partymen Tinubu and Shettima on May 29, 2023.
Buhari championed an anti-corruption war but his eight-year administration was fraught with some of the nation’s biggest sleaze involving his appointees.
There were also claims by some of his appointees that he didn’t exercise his oversight duty upon their activities but Shehu and other allies of the late president had faulted these claims.