Nigeria’s former President and ex army chief Buhari dies in London clinic : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4145x2792+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F49%2Fc0%2Fd1f19fe14bf880c5a3ee322ca90f%2Fap25194597200099.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4145x2792+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F49%2Fc0%2Fd1f19fe14bf880c5a3ee322ca90f%2Fap25194597200099.jpg" class="img" alt="Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari speaks to the media after casting his vote in his hometown of Daura, in northern Nigeria, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. " fetchpriority="high"/> Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari speaks to the media after casting his vote in his hometown of Daura, in northern Nigeria, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. (AP Photograph/Ben Curtis, File) Ben Curtis/AP disguise caption

toggle caption

Ben Curtis/AP LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria's former president and one-time army ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, has died at a hospital in London on the age of 82, a spokesperson confirmed Sunday.

Buhari, a towering and infrequently polarizing determine in Nigerian politics, had been battling an undisclosed sickness in current weeks. The presidency mentioned his physique shall be returned to Nigeria for Muslim funeral rites.

His short-lived first time period in 1983 noticed him undertake an aggressive anti-corruption marketing campaign broadly accused as repressive. About 500 political and civilian figures have been detained, in accordance with Nigeria media, together with activists and journalists, earlier than he was ousted in a army coup by Basic Ibrahim Babangida lower than two years later.

His time as a army ruler noticed him each lauded by some for being uncompromising and however broadly criticized as a brutal and authoritarian chief. Nigeria's Nobel Prize profitable creator, Wole Soyinka, who was imprisoned in an earlier army regime, described him as a satan in his 2006 memoirs "You Should Set Forth at Daybreak". In a play on the phrase "he who sups with the satan ought to have a protracted spoon", he mentioned of Buhari, "In my calculation no spoon existed lengthy sufficient to justify the danger of even an impromptu snack."

But public notion later shifted. After years spent as a largely a peripheral determine after which opposition politician, he gained a historic election in 2015 towards President Goodluck Jonathan, when the ruling Folks's Democratic Get together have been defeated for the primary time since a return to democracy in 1999.

Throughout the marketing campaign, Buhari referred to himself as a "transformed democrat" and returned to energy amid widespread anger at corruption and insecurity – significantly the rampant Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. He additionally forged himself as a nationalist, 'man of the folks', repeatedly saying "I belong to everyone and I belong to No one."

However regardless of big expectations, Buhari's return from 2015-2023 was marked by disappointment, violence and dramatic financial decline. Regardless of features within the combat towards Boko Haram, insecurity and violence unfold throughout the nation, stretching Nigeria's underfunded safety forces.

The nation additionally suffered its first financial recession in many years and inflation soared to close document ranges. His authorities was additionally dogged by corruption scandals and accusations of regional and ethnic factionalism.

His second time in energy was additionally marked by ongoing and largely undisclosed well being issues. Throughout his presidency, Buhari spent greater than 7 months on medical depart in London. In 2017, following one in every of his longest absences—throughout which he was reportedly recognized with amnesia linked to an unspecified situation—he mentioned, "I could not recall ever being this sick, not even throughout my time within the army… actually, I can say that in my 70 years."

Regardless of a fraught legacy, Buhari retained a loyal following, particularly in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, the place he was seen as a modest, austere chief who didn't enrich himself whereas in workplace.