A Political Scientist and Strategist, Akin Osuntokun, has said former President Muhammadu Buhari achieved his personal ambition of becoming “a hero of the North” but fell short in improving the standard of living of Nigerians, describing that contradiction as one of the defining features of Buhari’s legacy.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday during a discussion marking one year since Buhari’s death, Osuntokun said it was difficult to objectively assess the late president because of the convention against speaking ill of the dead, but insisted that history must still evaluate his record.
“Personally, for me, and I’m trying to be as objective as I can, I think his aspiration and ambition, he achieved it. That was to live and die as a Northern hero, as a hero of the North. I think that was his primary aspiration and ambition and his ideological position. So he achieved that. He died as a hero of the North, whatever interpretation you might want to give that.”
Osuntokun, who served as Political Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999-2007, noted that Buhari also built a reputation as a man of integrity and an anti-corruption crusader during his time as military head of state.
“He also had, to some extent, this attribution of being a man of integrity and a crusader against corruption, especially during the era of his military dictatorship. He did well in that respect, and of course, he earned that reputation. In a country where corruption was a top national concern, that reputation launched him into politics.”
However, he argued that Buhari’s political career was also shaped by northern political mobilisation that emerged after former President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office in 1999.
Recalling that period, Osuntokun said Buhari became a leading figure in the agitation surrounding the introduction of Sharia in parts of northern Nigeria.
“When Obasanjo became president in 1999, there arose a kind of Northern Muslim reaction against him, which was prosecuted through the introduction of Sharia. Obasanjo called it ‘political Sharia’. Buhari was at the head of it. The statements he made then are still worthy of being recalled.”
