Death of Muhammadu Buhari, former putschist who turned president elected | EUROtoday
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IHe had sworn to “give Nigeria his pride and discipline”. Muhammadu Buhari, former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, died this Sunday, July 13 in London on the age of 82, following a protracted sickness. The information fell within the early night on the social networks of Garba Shehu, which was his spokesperson throughout his presidency (2015-2023). “The family of the former president announced the death of Muhammadu Buhari this afternoon in a clinic in London”. Rigid navy who has change into civil by technique, authoritarian assumed to be transformed right into a Democrat by necessity, the general-president can have marked, in a extra determined than nuanced method, the political historical past of the West African large.
Official tributes have multiplied after the announcement of its disappearance. His successor, Bola Tinubu, praised “a patriot, a soldier, a statesman at heart”, whereas asserting the sending of the vice-president to repatriate the physique of London. President Sierra-Léonais Julius Maada Bio mentioned he was “deeply saddened” and expressed his solidarity with the Nigerian individuals. For his half, Umaro Sissoco Packó, president of Guinea-Bissau, paid tribute to “a great statesman, a father for me”, calling everybody to wish for the remainder of their soul. But the reactions are additionally extra nuanced. “His death arouses sadness in some, disillusionment in others,” feedback Nigerian political scientist Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, who sees a mirrored image of a person who has remained unable to unify a deeply divided nation.
Born in 1943 in Daura, within the North Muslim of Nigeria, in a Plele Modeste household, in a siblings of 24 kids, Buhari by no means actually left the barracks, even in three -room costume. From his modest childhood in a siblings of 24 kids till his final presidential mandate accomplished in 2023, his life was confused with the inherited historical past of impartial Nigeria, between navy, oil and faith putschs.
Because Buhari, it’s to begin with an iron trajectory in a vacillating state. Lieutenant in the course of the 1966 coup, officer in the course of the Biafra War (1967-1970), he participated in 1975 within the overthrow of General Gowon, then turned himself head of state after the 1983 coup. He was then 41 years outdated. The expertise is transient, brutal and founding: in twenty months, he imposed a conflict on corruption of maximum rigor, returns non -punctual officers, drags his opponents earlier than particular courts. And even throws in jail Fela Kuti, the Afrobeat icon, a musician of genius and political troublemaker, whose songs castigate the navy and denounce corruption. Symbol of a free and rebellious counter-culture, Fela pays the excessive worth for having challenged energy. He later described Buhari “animal with human skin”. The Buhari type, already brutal, asserts itself.
A common transformed to democracy
“Discipline is not a luxury but a necessity,” he mentioned then, launching his well-known War Against indiscipline. For many Nigerians, Buhari stays this determine of an authoritarian father, feared greater than cherished. A person of ideas, typically at the price of unpopularity. “We must learn to live with less,” he mentioned, refusing the structural adjustment plans of the IMF, preferring rationing on the Diktat of donors. The Naira is devalued, the imports restricted, Nigeria folds up on itself.
But the soldier is not going to survive the troopers for a very long time: in 1985, General Babangida overturned him in flip and enclosed him for nearly three years. The man comes down, however not resigned. He entered civil coverage in favor of post-1999 democratization. Three presidential failures (2003, 2007, 2011), then a historic victory in 2015 towards the outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan. A primary for the reason that return to multipartyism: an influence crushed within the polls, a robust image.
He was then 72 years outdated, and presents himself as a “convert to democracy”, within the phrases of Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize in literature. No extra khaki trellis, make means for sober costumes, collective prayers and appeasement speeches. He guarantees the tip of Boko Haram, the combat towards diversions and presidential integrity. But the person has not modified: austere, little talkative, typically sickly. His extended absence in London for medical causes fuels rumors of a ghost energy, run by a northern and militaro-religious guard.
“Buharism” nonetheless turns into a marker of this decade. A combination of financial nationalism, ethical conservatism and populism with grip. “Change has become a necessity to put an end to the economic disorder of this country and the crisis of confidence of the people with its corrupt leaders,” he hammered in 1984, and once more throughout his return to civil energy. A speech that has change into leitmotif, on the threat of wear and tear.
But the guarantees rise, and the realities are important. Despite some particular navy victories, Boko Haram continues his assaults within the Northeast. The elimination of greater than 270 highschool ladies in Chibok, in 2014, then different huge abstracts within the following years, symbolize the impotence of the State to guard its residents, regardless of the martial commitments of the president. Insecurity earns rural areas, armed bands are rising, tensions between communities worsen.
Buhari leaves a fractured Nigeria and a fragile democracy
His evaluation stays contrasting. The financial system turns empty, regardless of the oil windfall. Unemployment of younger individuals explodes, inequalities persist, corruption is reconfigured somewhat than it retreats. If his supporters greet an trustworthy determine, his detractors denounce an absent, authoritarian and outdated president. As for the North, from which he got here, he repeatedly ignites beneath the blows of Boko Haram, bandits of excessive path or spiritual tensions, with out Buhari managing to reverse the pattern. A misplaced decade, whispering his criticisms.
To uncover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
Buhari has by no means been a tribune or a flamboyant reformer. General from one other time, he sheltered behind a morality of metal, extra inclined to impose the order than to construct the consensus. The finish of his mandate is essentially the most uncooked illustration: galloping inflation, scarcity of gas, police violence. And above all, this anger carried by an exasperated youth, crystallized within the #Endsars motion, which has change into the cry of a era towards impunity and costly life. Dozens of younger individuals killed in Lagos, Abuja or Kano. And a mutical president going through the road. Like a loop that closes.
His successor, Bola Tinubu, inherited in 2023 from an exhausted nation, divided, however resilient. A Nigeria nonetheless on the wire, the place democracy is extra prowess than proof. Buhari’s inheritance? A fractured state, a breakfast, but in addition a rustic which, regardless of every thing, has discovered to have its idols fall by the poll packing containers.
https://www.lepoint.fr/afrique/nigeria-mort-de-muhammadu-buhari-ancien-putschiste-devenu-president-elu-13-07-2025-2594296_3826.php