• What Buhari told Radda about Tinubu after subsidy removal
• Political analyst, Kila, says Buhari is promise unkept
Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Amina Mohammed, while paying glowing tribute to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, explained that although the deceased was not comfortable with politics, he gave his all in service to Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television yesterday, she eulogised her former boss, recalling how he convinced her to represent Nigeria on the global stage.
Meanwhile, Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Radda, recalled some of his conversations with Buhari after his retirement, one of which was about President Bola Tinubu’s removal of the petrol subsidy while being sworn in as President.
Speaking with reporters in Daura at the sidelines of the former president’s burial ceremony, the governor said Buhari hailed Tinubu’s bravery in taking that decision to remove subsidy.
But amid the eulogies, renowned political analyst and professor of Strategy and Development at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies, Anthony Kila, has described Buhari, as a promise not kept.
Mohammed served as Nigeria’s Minister of Environment from November 2015 to December 2016 during Buhari’s first term in office. She, thereafter, went on to pick up her present role at the UN where she also chairs the UN Sustainable Development Group.
She had, on Monday, visited the Nigeria House in New York to pay tributes.
Mohammed, who also served under Buhari at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), signed the condolence register and prayed for the peaceful repose of his soul.
Describing the late Nigerian leader as a man of unwavering discipline, deep conviction and steadfast patriotism, whose legacy would endure far beyond Nigeria’s borders, she called him a leader who deeply believed in his people and country.
“He was a man of discipline, a man of conviction, a man of, as we say in Hausa, ‘kishinkasa’ (patriotism). He was a true patriot who believed in his country, believed in his people and did the best that he could,” Mohammed said.
She recalled Buhari’s guiding principle that service is about humanity, which demands patience, faith and sincerity of purpose.
“When we were frustrated, he would remind us that we were serving humanity, that we were serving people, and so, we must have the patience, we must have the faith, that we must continue to try to do the best, and we will be judged by our intentions,” she added.
Continuing, Radda said after Buhari left office in 2023 and retired to Daura, both of them interacted more often.
“After he left office in 2023, he spent about two years in Daura, Katsina. In that period, I was fortunate to interact with him more frequently, discussing national issues. He was a jovial person who often made me laugh.
“Let me use his words: ‘I pity Bola (Tinubu) for what he is doing. He is a brave man for removing the fuel subsidy. When I was President, whenever I made an attempt to remove the subsidy, a lot of people would give me too many reasons not to do so. But Bola did it immediately. If he had consulted people, he could not have removed the fuel subsidy,” Radda recalled.
The don, who spoke in Lagos while confirming the postponement of the National Constitutional Summit convened by the Patriots, noted that “the news of the death of former President Muhammad Buhari is a reminder to all that death is inevitable of our lives and that the legacy we believe during our lifetime should be our purpose.”
According to Kila, because we are very touchy-feely and religious people, “the instinct of many is to feel sad when someone dies, so naturally one’s thoughts will go to the family of the bereaved.”
Kila added: “I think it is safe to say that the battle has not been won. As a political leader who contested and eventually won elections to lead Nigeria, he was a promise of many things to millions of people. Many of the things that most of the citizens who supported him and voted for him were not accomplished, and to that extent, Buhari is a promise unkept.”
