He was born on the 17th of December 1942, he is a native of Daura, a Fulani town situated in Katsina State of Nigeria and he was born and bred in Daura. He attended Primary School in Daura and Mai’adua from 1948 to 1952,
before proceeding to Katsina middle School in 1953. After completing
his primary school education, he proceeded to the Katsina Provincial
Secondary School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956 to 1961.
In the year 1961, he rounded up his Secondary School and his
graduation was successful. Then he went to the Nigerian Military
Training School, Kaduna in 1963. In the same year, he attended 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. At this time Buhari
became a galant soldier and he furthered his training on the Platoon
Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian Military College, Kaduna which took
place between 1963 to 1964. It didn’t end there, in 1975, when General Murtala
Mohammed was in power, he appointed Buhari as Governor of the
North-Eastern State (present Borno State) so that he could push the state to a greater hieght
as he was seen as a very responsible and hard working man.
In March 1976 , General Olusegun Obasanjo was the acting head of Head of State, he appointed Buhari as the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources (this position is now addressed as Minister). In 1976, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was created and Buhari was the first person appointed as its Chairman, this position he held until 1978 .
On December 31, 1983, Nigeria was under civilian government and the civilian President was Shehu Shagari, he was removed in a coup d’etat and Major-General Buhari being a soldier replaced him as planned by high ranking military officials .
Muhammadu Buhari decided to try himself on the other side which is
the higher side, he contested for the Presidential election as the
candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in 2003 and lost. In 2007, he again contested for the same position and lost again. As at then, his main contender was Umaru Yar’Adua of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Gen. Buhari came the third time, he was the CPC Presidential candidate in the April 16, 2011 general election, running against former President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and Ibrahim Shekarau of ANPP. Again he lost the fourth time. It was time for 2015 general election, Buhari gathered his courage and contested for the Presidential election under the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) but this time he was determine to win. The race was very tight but he was able to unseat the incumbent, His Excellency, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to emerged the winner in the election .
