OPINION/ESSAY

The Mystery of Buhari - Amaechi Union & the Jonathan Connection
By Eze Chukwuemeka Eze

 Preamble

President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, was born on December 17, 1942. He was at various times Military Administrator of the defunct North Eastern State (now Borno and Yobe states) from July 1975 to February 1976; Federal Commissioner of Petroleum and Natural Resources from March 1976 – June 1978; and Head of the Federal Military Government from 1984-85. He later became Chairman of a major interventionist initiative, Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). A respected elder statesman and one of the few celebrated saints in Nigeria and the only Nigerian who have contested for president of Nigeria three consecutive times, Buhari won on the fourth attempt. His first shot at the number one position was in 2003, against President Olusegun Obasanjo during his second term; and in 2007, he ran against Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua (now late) and in 2011, he contested against Dr Goodluck Jonathan – all of the Peoples Democratic Party. He lost all the three elections. And on his fourth attempt in 2015 – on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), an amalgam of major opposition parties – he defeated an incumbent President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.