Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, who led his country first as a junta strongman and later as an elected democrat, died Sunday, July 13 at the age of 82, an aide said. Buhari governed Nigeria with a strong hand as a military ruler in the 1980s, before reinventing himself as a "converted democrat," serving two terms from 2015 to 2023.
"The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, this afternoon in a clinic in London," Garba Shehu, who served as Buhari's spokesperson during his presidency, said in a post on social media.
Current President Bola Tinubu said in a statement that he had spoken with Buhari's widow and ordered Vice President Kashim Shettima to go to England to accompany Buhari's body back to Nigeria.
The rake-thin 82-year-old Muslim from Nigeria's far north made history as the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent leader at the ballot box in 2015. His election victory in a country where re-election for the incumbent had been taken for granted was seen as a rare opportunity for Nigeria to change course.
But his time at the helm failed to halt the country's long-standing issues of graft and insecurity, while the oil giant was further dogged by economic woes.