President Bola Tinubu, has said the late immediate past president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari gave everything he had to the country without reservation.
Tinubu said this at the One Year Remembrance of the former president and unveiling of a complimentary book titled:“Tributes and Condolences in Honour of former President Muhammadu Buhari” at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja on Monday, July 13, 2026.
Buhari died on July 13, 2025 while receiving medical treatment at a clinic in London after which his body was flown back to Nigeria and laid to rest in his hometown of Daura, Katsina state, with a state funeral and full military honors.
Tinubu, who was the special guest of honour at the event, said Buhari served the country with courage, conviction and patriotism that “never asked what the nation could return to him.”
Represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the former Lagos State governor said he and ex-Nigerian leader were co-travellers on the long road of politics and national development through thick and thin
“President Buhari and I were co-travellers on the long road of politics and national development. We worked together through seasons of difficulty and seasons of hope.
“We shared a deep and abiding passion for a renewed, progressive, and prosperous Nigeria—a nation held together by brotherhood, settled in peace, and generous in abundance so that no citizen is left outside the circle of its promise.
“He gave everything he had to this country, and he gave it without reservation. He served with courage. He served with conviction and with a patriotism that never asked what the nation could return to him.
“From his years as a military leader to his transformation into a democrat and a determined defender of constitutional order, he embodied the very spirit of change and nation-building.
“Few men are permitted two lives in the service of one country. He was given that rare privilege, and he used it well.
I want to say something about him that we do not say often enough.
“Power ordinarily exhausts the affection of the governed. That is the common course of office, and every one of us who has carried it understands that course,” Tinubu said.
He stated that Buhari laid down the burden of leadership and through all the years of his retirement and final months, when illness had taken the strength from his body, the trust of ordinary Nigerians did not depart from him.
“It followed him into private life. It sat with him in Daura. It waited outside his door. Such constancy, surviving the hallway of public office and the long quiet that comes after it, is the sturdiest inheritance any leader can leave a nation. It is not given; it is earned. And it is earned only through a lifetime of agreement between what a man says and what a man is.
“Today, we gather to celebrate his memory and to honour a man of real character, a leader who taught by the example of his own life and who departed, leaving behind an inheritance that continues to instruct us.
“We honour him in death as we honoured him in life, and we do so without embellishment because his life required none.
He had no appetite for flattery when he was among us, and he will have none for it now.
“To the immediate family, to our dear Mrs Aisha Buhari, and to the younger Buharis, I know that you have passed through a season of profound grief. Please be assured that the nation and this administration stand with you now and in all the years to come. We will continue to hold you up in our prayers, trusting that Almighty Allah will comfort you, sustain you and shield you from all harm.
“Our duty, as his friends, as his mentees, and as his associates, is to carry forward the inheritance he left us: honesty, simplicity, and self-discipline.
I have no doubt that had this remembrance been thrown open to all who wished to attend, this venue would have overflowed, and the streets beyond it would have overflowed as well. Such was the love and regard Nigerians held for President Buhari, and such is the love they hold for him still.
“I thank every one of you present here for your continued devotion to his memory and to his legacy. Fellow compatriots, while we honour what President Buhari represented, we must pray for the repose of his soul and share in the family’s grief.
“We must continue to strive, in our own conduct, to approach the standard he kept. That is the only tribute worthy of him, and it is one he would have asked for,” Tinubu added.
Similarly, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, said the late Buhari did his best for Nigeria.
