Abuja: Muhammadu Buhari’s legacy in Nigeria is likely to be mixed. He will be remembered for trying to foster integrity in the country and for leadership that was deeply flawed. “From his military era to his two-term civilian presidency, he leaves behind a legacy filled with both praise and pain. We must reflect on justice and accountability,” Sheriff Ansu, a digital content creator, said.
According to Deutsche Welle, human rights activists say that he never let go of his autocratic tendencies. “Buhari was an ethnic bigot. He had contempt for the rule of law; he disobeyed court orders. He engaged in enforced disappearances of critics,” Omoyele Sowore, an activist based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, told DW. “He is one man who believed in making Nigeria the best place to live on Earth. He tried his best to bring Nigerians together as a military ruler and a democratically elected leader,” Yusuf Dantalle, chairman of Nigeria’s Inter Party Advisory Council, told DW. “That does not mean he was perfect. He had his flaws like any other human being.”
“What stands out is that his presidency triggered national conversations around leadership accountability, youth inclusion, and restructuring of systems to entrench democracy,” Osasu Igbinedion Ogwuche, a media entrepreneur, told DW. Many had expected Buhari’s tenure as a democratically elected leader to be characterized by the kind of discipline, order, and stability of a military veteran. Buhari described himself as a “converted democrat” when he swapped his military uniform for kaftans and prayer caps. “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody,” was his constant refrain to both supporters and critics.
But Buhari’s lackluster leadership often made headlines and earned him the moniker “Baba Go Slow.” It took him six months to name his ministers in 2015, and the oil-dependent economy was hobbled by low crude prices.
Buhari earned a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics. But his crackdowns on corruption also ran into criticism and failed to yield high-profile convictions. He retained his popularity in the country’s poor and largely Muslim north, where he was from and where voters propelled him to his second term in 2019, despite a term that was blighted by Nigeria’s first recession in a generation and attacks on oilfields by militants. Buhari was seen to repeatedly ignore advice from the International Monetary Fund to devalue the Nigerian naira, instead keeping the currency artificially high—the same failed approach he had used as a military ruler in the 1980s.
In 2022, the production of oil—by far Nigeria’s greatest export—fell to its lowest level in more than two decades due to theft in the Niger Delta. Frail health often interfered with Buhari’s tenure as president. He made frequent trips to hospitals abroad for an undisclosed illness. In 2017, rumors of his death circulated after he disappeared from the public eye for 51 days, reportedly to undergo treatment. Buhari’s death at a London health facility reminded many Nigerian citizens of his medical trips and the controversy these had triggered.
Buhari, an ethnic Fulani and devout Muslim, was born on December 17, 1942, in Nigeria’s northern Katsina state. He joined the army at 20 and rose quickly through the ranks, becoming an officer and the military governor of the north-east. In 1976, the country’s then military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo appointed Buhari as petroleum and energy minister. Despite his new key role at one of Africa’s largest oil producers, Buhari returned to the army as a commander, rejoining its Supreme Military Council, and leading several units.
In 2003, he ran as the presidential candidate for the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party. His defeat was followed by similarly unsuccessful bids in 2007 and 2011. In 2015, Buhari finally won the presidency with 54% of the vote. He had promised to fight rampant corruption and defeat the Islamist terrorist Boko Haram militia.
On December 31, 1983, when General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the military overthrew elected President Shehu Shagari, Buhari was appointed to chair Nigeria’s Supreme Military Council. He went on to suspend the constitution, ban all political parties, and clamp down on corruption—making good on his threat at the time to jail the corrupt “without the nonsense of judicial proceedings.” Under Buhari’s “war on indiscipline,” nearly 500 people were jailed for corruption and wasting taxpayers’ money.
In the 2022-2023 presidential race, Buhari endorsed Bola Tinubu, who had been dishing out praise over his dedication to national unity, reforms, and discipline.