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.