CNN
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Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari died at the age of 82, a former military general who campaigned to eradicate corruption in the government, the Presidential Press Bureau said in a statement on Sunday.
He died in London around 4:30pm after a “long-term illness,” according to the statement.
Nigeria’s current President Bora Ahmed Tinubu expressed his sadness to Buhari’s wife and ordered the Vice President to travel to the UK to return Buhari’s body to Nigeria.
Tinubu praised Buhari’s legacy as “patriots, soldiers and politicians” and his country’s “deep commitment to unity and progress.”
“He led the most disturbing times with solid strength, deep integrity and unwavering belief in the possibilities of Nigeria. He defended the discipline of public service, confronted corruption head-on, and outperformed the nation in turn over personal interest,” Tinubu said.
Buhari was elected president in 2015 after three failed attempts. He was re-elected in 2019 for a further four-year term.
The former general, who first came to power in the 1983 military coup, was only overthrown by another military coup two years later, and Buhari is remembered in a strong anti-corruption agenda in a country known as “fantastically corrupted” by former British Prime Minister David Cameron. Others praise his harsh attitude towards Boko Haram’s uprising and security issues that have plagued the country’s northeast for years.
He was born in December 1942 in Daura, Katina, in the northern state of Nigeria, and completed military training in Kaduna, the UK, India and the US.
He first became politically prominent in 1975, and came after a military coup that overcame then-directed Jakub Gorson. Buhari became military governor of Borno Province. It is a state that is troubled by Boko Haram.
Buhari, who married twice and has 10 children, was part of a Nigerian dominant facility that called himself out during the 2015 election campaign and won the landslide.
The Nigerians lined up the streets celebrating his victory. However, the honeymoon didn’t last long, as many believed that many had wasted his goodwill by being too late in the president’s actions.
He took six months to appoint a minister to the cabinet and then failed to act swiftly to tackle the country’s economic crisis.
For months, Buhari refused to devalue Nigerian’s falling currency, Naira and its weakening trust in investors. This created the Gulf Coast between the official and black market exchange rates.
According to economic analyst Bismarck Rewane, one of Buhari’s failures was his limited understanding of modern economics and market policies, which led the country to a recession. According to Rewane, this lack of understanding was rooted in delusions and doubt after he overthrew during his first military rule.
He said: “Buhari felt that he had been scam when asked by the IMF to remove Naira’s underestimation and grants.. ”
Lewan, who met President Buhari several times on the campaign trail and gave him policy advice after his victory, says Buhari will be remembered as a “strong and principled leader.”
“He was a very unique governor,” Lewan told CNN. “Some people will say he’s stiff, he didn’t shift when he believed something. But I think it’s a good thing. He’s very rare in this part of the world. People here are so flexible and corrupt.”
Buhari’s first term was the separatist pro-Biafra movement in eastern Nigeria, characterized by wars on many fronts, including the Boko Haram rebellion assaulting Fulani herdsmen throughout Nigeria.
Despite growing concerns about the country’s security situation, Buhari was re-elected in 2019. During his second term, furious protests against police brutality erupted across the country, denounced reports of terror by police forces, harassing, and controversial police forces.
Buhari vowed to fight the extremist groups and do more to fix the economy as the demonstrations became fatal and continued to boil down for the rest of the presidency.
In his final UN speech in 2022, Buhari criticized the “corrosive” effect of fellow leaders who extend term restrictions to stick to power. The following year he praised his successor and party member Tinubu as “the best person for the job.”
