Ex-President Muhammadu Buhari the second longest serving president finally boards his final planet earth flight as his corpse was lowered in his hometown Daura on Tuesday.
Full military honours and other accompaniments, such as gun salutes and tuneful processions befitting a former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, were accorded to Buhari. Islamic rites also preceded the interment of the former Nigerian leader in Daura.
Beyond being the final resting place of the general-turned-statesman, Daura, a small agrarian town in North-West Nigeria, was also the birthplace of the man known by millions of his cult-like northern followers as the “Mai Gaskiya” in Hausa language, meaning the truth-teller.
Buhari was more than a regional leader; he led Nigeria for a cumulative period of nine years and eight months, both as a military head of state and a democratically elected president, making him one of the longest-serving Nigerian leaders.
Leading the roll call of mourners-in-chief was the former president’s widow, Aisha; Buhari’s successor, President Bola Tinubu; his vice, Kashim Shettima; Buhari’s former deputy, Yemi Osinbajo; former vice president Atiku Abubakar; billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote; serving and former governors, ministers, first-class traditional rulers, religious leaders, among others.