President Muhammadu Buhari was once in detention. When and how? Check Out this interesting Facts about the Nigerian President

Life has its ways of playing out events in one's destiny, though some have taken their destiny in their hands and have effected the path that brews greatness, wellness and super-achievements for them.

Here is one man who never gave up on his dreams and patiently, doggedly and meticulously created and walked the path that led him into being the number one citizen of the most populous black country in Africa. Inspire yourself and going through these facts about Muhammadu Buhari and understand what transpired in his life that makes him tick even at his age...enjoy!!



* Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is the President of Nigeria, in office since 2015. 

* He is a retired major general in the Nigerian Army and previously served as the nation's head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d'état.

* He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 general elections.



* In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 2015 general elections. Buhari won the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This marked the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in a general election.

* Muhammadu Buhari was born to a Fulani family

*  He is the twenty-third child of his father.

* His father died when he was about four years old.

* Buhari joined the Nigerian Army by enrolling in the Nigerian Military Training College in 1961.

* In January 1963, Buhari was commissioned a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria. 

* In July 1966 Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari was one of the participants in the "July Rematch" or so called "Counter-Coup", led by Lt-Col Murtala Muhammed, that overthrew and assassinated Nigeria's first self-appointed military Head of State General Aguiyi Ironsi.



* Then Lieutenant Colonel Buhari was among a group of officers (led by Colonels Ibrahim Taiwo, Joseph Garba, Abdulahi Mohammed, Anthony Ochefu, Lieutenant Colonels Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Ibrahim Babangida and Alfred Aduloju) who overthrew the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon.

* Buhari also briefly served as Governor of Borno state from 3 February 1976 to 15 March 1976.

* In March 1976, the 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 1977, Buhari was also appointed as its Chairman, a position he held until 1978.

* During Buhari's tenure as the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources, the government invested in pipelines and petroleum storage infrastructures. The government built about 21 petroleum storage depots all over the country from Lagos to Maidugiuri and from Calabar to Gusau; the administration constructed a pipeline network that connected Bonny terminal and the Port Harcourt refinery to the depots. Also, the administration signed the contract for the construction of a refinery in Kaduna and an oil pipeline that will connect the Escravos oil terminal to Warri Refinery and the proposed Kaduna refinery.

* In 1983, when Chadian forces invaded Nigeria in the Borno State, Buhari used the forces under his command to chase them out of the country, crossing into Chadian territory in spite of an order given by President Shagari to withdraw.

* In August 1985, Major General Buhari was overthrown in a coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council.

* Buhari spent three years of detention in a small guarded bungalow in Benin.

* After his mother's death, he was released in December 1988 and went into farming. While in detention, his farm was managed by his relatives. He divorced his first wife in 1988 and married Aisha Halilu.

* In 2003, Buhari ran for office in the presidential election as the candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP). He was defeated by the People's Democratic Partynominee, President Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ, by a margin of more than 11 million votes.

* On 18 December 2006, Gen. Buhari was nominated as the consensus candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party. His main challenger in the April 2007 polls was the ruling PDP candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, who hailed from the same home state of Katsina. In the election, Buhari officially took 18% of the vote against 70% for Yar'Adua, but Buhari rejected these results. After Yar'Adua took office, the ANPP agreed to join his government, but Buhari denounced this agreement.

* In March 2010, Buhari left the ANPP for the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party that he had helped to found. Buhari was the CPC Presidential candidate in 16 April 2011 general election, running against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), The elections were marred by widespread sectarian violence, which claimed the lives of 800 people across the country.

* He remains a "folk hero" to some for his vocal opposition to corruption. Buhari won 12,214,853 votes, coming in second to the incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, who polled 22,495,187 votes and was declared the winner.

* On 31 March, incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan called Buhari to offer his concession and congratulations for his election as president. Buhari was sworn in on 29 May 2015 in a ceremony attended by at least 23 Heads of State and Government.

* Since Nigeria became independent in 1960, Buhari is the 15th person to head the Nigerian government. He also makes history as the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria. 

* In May 2016, Buhari cancelled a two-day visit to Lagos to inaugurate projects in the state but he was represented by the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo after citing an "ear infection" suspected to be Ménière's disease.

* President Buhari left Nigeria for a reported health check-up in London on 7 May 2017, after a previous visit. President Buhari returned to Nigeria from his medical leave in the United Kingdom 104 days after leaving, on August 19, 2017.

* Obasanjo appointed Buhari federal commissioner for petroleum and natural resources in 1976.

* In 1971, Buhari married his first wife, Safinatu (née Yusuf) Buhari (First lady of Nigeria December 1983 – August 1985). They had five children together, four girls and one boy. Their first daughter, Zulaihat (Zulai) was named after Buhari's mother. Their other children are Fatima, Musa (deceased son), Hadiza, and Safinatu.

* In 1988, Buhari and his first wife Safinatu divorced. In December 1989, Buhari married his second and current wife Aisha Buhari (née Halilu). They also had five children together, a boy and four girls: Aisha, Halima, Yusuf, Zahra and Amina.

* On 14 January 2006, Safinatu Buhari, the former first lady, died from complications of diabetes. She was buried at Unguwar Rimi cemetery in accordance with Islamic rites.

In November 2012, Buhari's first daughter, Zulaihat (née Buhari) Junaid died from sickle cell anaemia, two days after having a baby at a hospital in Kaduna.

* Buhari at 72 was the oldest person to assume the office of president in Nigeria.

* Buhari listens to BBC Hausa service religiously. He told TheCable in an interview last year: “I am an avid listener of the Voice of America and the BBC, Hausa service. This is because over the years I have discovered that they have been very, very helpful in educating the mostly illiterate Hausa-
speaking populace."

* In the absence of real horses, he enjoyed playing with straw horses as a kid. Sani Abubakar Dan Kurma, one of his elementary school classmates, recently told Daily Trust: “We played with sand together and rode straw horses… There was this time when we were children and we went to the
outskirts of town to play our version of polo with straw horses and sticks, hitting a ball made from Goruba. It was our favourite game then. As we played, I hit him with the dum-palm seed which served as a ball and he fell down. I consoled him fervently, assuring him it was a mistake, so much
so that he also began to console me. That’s his character: he was the wronged party, yet he was telling me sorry."

*  During his short reign as military head of state, he also ordered that the currency be replaced – the colour of the naira notes were changed – forcing all holders of old notes to exchange them at banks within a limited period as part of his anti-corruption measures.

* When he ruled Nigeria from January 1984 to August 1985, Nigerians will remember that period for a strict campaign against indiscipline and corruption, in which he ordered Nigerians to form neat queues at bus stops, under the sharp eyes of whip-wielding soldiers as part of his “War Against Indiscipline”.

* Buhari is a father to ten children, though one passed away.