Muhammadu Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in Daura,
Katsina State. He is the twenty-third child of his father, Adamu. Buhari was
raised by his mother, his father died when he was about three or four. He went
to Primary School in Daura and Mai’adua from 1948 – 1952, before proceeding to
Katsina middle School in 1953. He attended the Katsina Provincial Secondary
School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956 – 1961. On graduation from
Secondary School in 1961, Buhari went to the Nigerian Military Training School,
Kaduna in 1963.

In October 1963, he was sent to the officers’ Cadet School
in Aldershot in the United Kingdom and was thereafter commissioned Second
Lieutenant in 1963 and posted to the 2nd Infantry Battalion, Abeokuta as
Platoon Commander in 1963. It was at the Abeokuta Garrison that the real traits
of a great soldier were identified in the young man. From 1963 – 1964 he was
sent for further training on the Platoon Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian
Military College, Kaduna.

In 1965, he went for the Mechanical Transport Officers’
Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, England. He went
to the Defence Services’ Staff College, Wellington, India in 1973 and to the
United States Army War College from June 1979 to June 1980.

In August 1975, after General Murtala Mohammed took power,
he appointed Buhari as Governor of the North-Eastern State, to oversee social,
economic and political improvements in the state.

In March 1976, the then Head of State, General Olusegun
Obasanjo appointed Buhari as the Federal Commissioner (position now called
Minister) for Petroleum and Natural Resources. When the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation was created in 1976, Buhari was also appointed as its
Chairman, a position he held until 1978.

The Nigerian Second Republic lasted from 1979 to 1983 under
civilian president Shehu Shagari. The weak political coalition government, the
end of the oil boom, the strain of recession, and fraud in the 1983 elections
caused the army to step in again at the end of December 1983. Major-General
Buhari and Major-General Tunde Idiagbon were selected to lead the country by
middle and high-ranking military officers after a successful military coup
d’etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari on December.

Buhari tried to restore public accountability and
to reestablish a dynamic economy without altering the basic power structure of
the country. The military had become impatient with the civilian government.
Corruption in particular was out of control, and the fraudulent election had
been too obvious. Because the civilians in the NPN could not control the
situation, the military would try its hand.

The military tried to achieve two aims. First, it attempted
to secure public support by reducing the level of corruption; second,
it demonstrated its commitment to austerity by trimming the federal budget.
As a further attempt to mobilize the country, Buhari launched a War Against
Indiscipline in the spring of 1984. This national campaign, which lasted
fifteen months, preached the work ethic, emphasized patriotism, decried
corruption, and promoted environmental sanitation.

His administration subsequently initiated a public campaign
against indiscipline known as “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI). As
part of his “War Against Indiscipline”, he ordered Nigerians to form
neat queues at bus stops, under the sharp eyes of whip-wielding soldiers.
Civil servants who were late for work were publicly humiliated by being forced
to do frog jumps.

Unemployment was on the rise as the recession worsened, so
that speeches about working hard seemed out of place. The appeal to
Nigerian nationalism had the negative effect of restricting the flexibility of
the government in international negotiations over the debt. The campaign was
enforced haphazardly; some people were executed or given long jail terms while
others were allowed off if they were well-connected.

In August 1985, Buhari was himself overthrown in a coup led
by General Ibrahim Babangida on August 27th, and other members of the ruling
Supreme Military Council (SMC) ostensibly, because he insisted on investigating
allegations of fraudulent award of contracts in the Ministry of
Defense.Buhari’s regime is remembered for a strict campaign against
indiscipline and corruption, and for its human rights abuses.

Buhari was detained in Benin City until 1988.
Between 1995 and 1998, Buhari served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust
Fund (PTF), a body created by the government of General Sani Abacha, and funded
from the revenue generated by the increase in price of petroleum products, to
pursue developmental projects around the country.

Buhari contested the Presidential election as the candidate
of the All Nigeria People’s Party in April 2003 and lost to Olusegun Obasanjo.
ANPP Presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s court cases against the flawed
April elections continued with hearings examining both the election results and
the May 2003 decision to go ahead with Obasanjo’s inauguration. At
the Appeals Court hearing the case against the election results,
Buhari’s attorneys continued to make points with the judges and with the public
by presenting evidence of fraud, intimidation and rigging. Obasanjo’s attorneys
admitted their defense in this suit would not refute the allegations of
rigging, but would rely on the fact that removing Obasanjo and holding another
election could be “disruptive.”

Again, he contested under the ANPP banner on 14 April 2007
against Umaru Musa Yar’adua of the PDP and lost. The only rallies allowed to
take place unhindered were the ruling PDP rallies. The ANPP and its
Presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari were banned from holding rallies in
many locations, purportedly because the “crowds are too big.”
Several of their rallies were broken up by police accompanied by unnamed
“hired thugs.”

The new and improved Buhari showed principled positions on
anti-corruption and electoral issues which earned him reasonable grassroots
support in north during the election. Buhari trie not to make the same mistakes
he made in 2003. He had learned that attempting to take his grievances to the
courts ended in nothing less than failure. This time around, Buhari appeared
much more savvy and apt at understanding the political terrain. By broadening
his base of support and actively campaigning in the influential, wealthy
diasporic communities of the Igbo in particular, Buhari stemmed the power base
of the PDP.

Petitions from aggrieved candidates or political parties,
including main opposition presidential candidates Muhammadu Buhari (ANPP) and
Atiku Abubakar (AC), were filed across Nigeria’s thirty-six states and the FCT.
Almost three months after INEC announced winners of the April gubernatorial and
presidential elections, most election tribunals throughout Nigeria had yet to
convene. Buhari blamed Obasanjo, personally, for the electoral problems.

On 24 March 2009, nineteen Nigerian opposition parties
agreed to form what they described as a mega-party to challenge the ruling
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 elections. While most were very
small, the largest (Buhari) faction of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP)
and the leadership of the Action Congress (AC) were represented in the meeting.
The opposition parties accused the PDP of running the country into the ground
and acting as if Nigeria were a one-party state.

In March 2010, Buhari left the ANPP for the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC), a party that he had helped to found. Nigerian
political parties are largely organized around support for one central Big Man,
rather than an ideology. Buhari was the CPC Presidential candidate in the 16
April 2011 general election, in which he lost to incumbent President Goodluck
Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He was the presidential
candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2015 presidential
election which he eventually won.

Buhari was sworn in as the 15th President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria on May 29th 2015

In 1971, Buhari got married to his first wife, the former
first lady, Safinatu (nee Yusuf) Buhari. They had five children together. In
1988, Buhari and his first wife Safinatu got divorced. In December 1989, Buhari
got married to his second and current wife Aisha (nee Halilu) Buhari. They also
have five children together.

Muhammadu Buhari is viewed as honest and straightforward, a
novelty in the Nigerian political landscape. His support is based on this
reputation, a support which limits his ability to make political compromises.
Although he lost three elections, in 2003, 2007 and 2011, amid allegations of
widespread irregularities, Buhari was still very popular with the grassroots
especially in the Northern part of Nigeria. While his campaigns remained below
the radar screen and he was hampered by the lack of access to the billions of
Naira that classical analysts saw as the lubricant for Nigerian elections, he
enjoyed something that few other Nigerians enjoy: grassroots support.