A few weeks in 1977, Muhammadu Buhari sat close to Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Colonel Muhammad Buhari was supposed to succeed Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, following the assassination of General Murtala Muhammad and the subsequent promotion of Obasanjo to Head of State in 1976. However, his application was denied because he was too rigid and inflexible and lacked the political savvy needed for the position.
However, Lieutenant-Colonel Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a fellow Katsina guy, was selected to succeed Obasanjo and was thrown over the heads of many of his superiors to the position of Brigadier (he was later elevated to Major-General).
In order to avoid the embarrassment of reporting to their former commander, Yar’Adua, several of these top officials were so mortified by this situation that they went straight to Obasanjo. Later, in 1983, Buhari was appointed Head of State of Nigeria, and it was under his leadership that Nigeria made its most significant diplomatic error to date.
