A little child who would later play his roles in Nigeria’s political history was born eighty-two years ago in the town of Daura, which is today in Katsina State, Nigeria, which was then part of Northern British Nigeria. From March 1976 until June 1978, he was the Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources. From February 3 to March 15, 1976, he was the governor of Borno State for a brief period of time. He was elected Head of State of Nigeria a few years later, and he presided over the nation from December 31, 1983, to August 27, 1985. He returned to leadership decades later as President of Nigeria, holding the office for two terms, from 2015 to 2023, for a total of eight years.
On December 17, 1942, Muhammadu Buhari was born into a Fulani family in the Nigerian town of Daura, which is located in Katsina State. His mother, Zulaihat, was of Hausa and Kanuri descent, and his father, Mallam Hardo Adamu, was a Fulani chieftain from Dumurkul in Mai’Adua. He was named in honor of Muhammad al-Bukhari, a Persian Islamic philosopher who lived in the ninth century, and is the 23rd child of his father.
After his father passed away while Buhari was around four years old, his mother reared him by herself. He completed his elementary education in Daura and Mai’adua in 1953, then went on to Katsina Middle School and, from 1956 to 1961, Katsina Provincial Secondary School in Katsina State, where he obtained his West African School Certificate. Buhari attended the Kaduna-based Nigerian Military Training School.
