Muhammadu Buhari

Muhammadu Buhari (17 December 1942 – 13 July 2025) was a Nigerian army officer and politician who ruled as military head of state from 1983 to 1985 and was elected president from 2015 to 2023 (Wikipedia). Born in Daura, now in Katsina State, he fought in the civil war and rose through later military governments.

He became head of state after the coup of 31 December 1983 that ended the Second Republic. According to the Library of Congress country study, his government set up tribunals against corruption, cut spending and in 1984 launched the "War Against Indiscipline", while critics and journalists were harassed. He was overthrown on 27 August 1985 in a palace coup led by Ibrahim Babangida (Wikipedia).

Buhari was the twenty-third child of Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chief from Dumurkul, and Zulaihat, of Hausa and Kanuri ancestry. His father died when he was four, and he was brought up under the guardianship of a son of the Emir of Daura. He attended Quranic school, primary school in Daura and Mai'Adua, and Katsina Middle School (later Katsina Provincial Secondary School) from 1956 to 1961, where he was head boy (Wikipedia).

In 1962 he was one of 70 young men recruited into the Nigerian Military Training College, and trained as an officer cadet at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England; he was commissioned in January 1963. He commanded the Second Infantry Battalion from 1965 to 1967 and took part in the July 1966 counter-coup with other northern officers (Wikipedia). The Library of Congress country study adds that he was later military governor of the North-Eastern State and federal commissioner for petroleum and mines from 1976 to 1978.

In the Fourth Republic he stood for president several times and won on 28 March 2015 as candidate of the All Progressives Congress, defeating the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan: the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election since independence. He was re-elected in February 2019 and served until 29 May 2023 (Wikipedia).