Samuel Ajayi looks at the early life, times, politics and public service mindset of the late President, Muhammadu Buhari
With the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari, a chapter in the cherquered history of Nigeria has closed. It was a chapter that was fraught with many milestones. But it was a chapter that the history of Nigeria would not be complete without it.
Buhari, born on December 17, 1942 in Daura, in present day Katsina State, he was one of the 23 children of his father, Mallam Adamu. In fact, he would not have been educated, at least formally, if not the benevolence of one Waziri Alhassan, son of a former Emir of Daura, who took in Buhari’s mother Zulaihat and his siblings.
Initially sent to Koranic school, his formal education journey began with his enrolment in a primary school in Daura before moving to Katsina Middle School which was later named Provincial Secondary School where he finished his secondary education in 1961.
Unknown to many Nigerians, Buhari actually wanted to become medical practitioner. That was his dream. However, fate had other ideas. Inspired by the late Hassan Katsina, who was then an already commissioned officer of the Nigerian Army, Buhari’s course of life was to change from an aspiring medical doctor to a military officer.
Shortly before his 20th birthday, Buhari was one of the 70 intakes into the Nigerian Military Training School, NMTC, in Kaduna. The school was to later change to the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA.
Buhari went for officer training course Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, United Kingdom, in 1962 and upon his return to the country in 1963, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of the Nigerian Army and his first military posting and assignment was as Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Abeokuta, in present day Ogun State.
