Muhammadu Buhari: A profile

Muhammadu Buhari was born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, Katsina
State. 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 of the same year, 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.
In 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.
In 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 Defence.
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 2003 and lost to former president Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Again, he contested under the ANPP banner in 2007 against Late Umaru
Musa Yar’adua of the PDP and lost.
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 the 16 April 2011 general
election, in which he lost to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the
People's Democratic Party (PDP).
He is currently the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress
(APC) in the 2015 presidential election.