Former President Muhammadu Buhari has died at the age of 82, News Point Nigeria gathered.
Buhari’s death was confirmed in a terse statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on Sunday evening.
“The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, this afternoon in a clinic in London,” he said.
However, the nature of the illness was not disclosed. The former president had been in London for the last couple of days undergoing treatment before his death on Sunday.
Buhari was Nigeria’s President from 2015 to 2023. He also served as the military Head of State between January 1984 and August 1985.
Expectedly, his demise has triggered an outpouring of condolences from Nigerians, especially political leaders. President Bola Tinubu, who took over from Buhari in 2013, was among to first to mourn the former leader.
Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, in a short message, said Tinubu, Buhari’s ally, has ordered Vice President Kashim Shettima to proceed to the United Kingdom to accompany the former president’s body back to Nigeria.
“President Tinubu has spoken with Mrs Aishat Buhari, the former President’s widow, and offered his deep condolences,” the statement added.
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, also ordered that flags be flown at half-mast as a mark of respect for the departed leader.
Born on December 17, 1942, Buhari was raised in Daura, Katsina – his home state – and was brought up by his mother following his father’s death when he was four.
The Katsina-born politician was married to Safinatu Yusuf between 1971 and 1988. He later married Aisha Halilu in 1989. Both marriages produced ten children.
Until his ascendancy to power, Buhari enjoyed massive support, especially from the northern region of the country, and was viewed as incorruptible. He contested Nigeria’s top seat in 2003, 2007, and 2011 but did not win.
However, in 2015, Buhari took over power under the All Progressives Congress (APC) – a merger party – displacing incumbent ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
That win marked a milestone in Nigeria’s democratic setting, the first time a sitting president had lost out since the reinstatement of democracy in 1999.
It also broke the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s 16-year grip on power at the federal level.
Despite the affluence that marked the presidential seat, ex-President Buhari maintained a low profile and believed that he was not in that position to amass wealth.
In 2015, the military general declared his assets, listing some farms, five homes, two mud houses, an orchard, and a ranch with 270 cows.
Others included shares in three companies, plots of land in Port Harcourt and Kano, and $150,000 in a personal bank account.
After he handed over power to his party man and ally Tinubu on May 29th, 2023, Buhari retired to Daura, where he spent most of his time.
At the beginning of the year, when the ruling APC had a caucus meeting in his home state, Buhari maintained what Shehu had described as a “Spartan lifestyle”.
At the event, the late president said, “After my eight years as a civil president, I have only three houses; one in Daura and two in Kaduna. I have given one out for renting, where I get money for feeding.”
About two years after handing over, Buhari relocated to one of his houses in Kaduna.