Vice President Kashim Shettima has revealed that the burial of late former President Muhammadu Buhari was made possible within 24 hours of his passing, due to swift diplomatic coordination and the respect he commanded internationally.
In a tribute, VP Shettima disclosed that the standard five-day repatriation protocol for deceased persons in the United Kingdom was waived to allow the immediate return of Buhari’s remains to Nigeria.
“Ordinarily, the bureaucratic procedures for repatriating a deceased body from the United Kingdom require a minimum of five working days,” Shettima said. “But in an extraordinary demonstration of the enduring respect for Nigeria and the late former President himself, we were able to secure the requisite documentation within 24 hours.”
Shettima credited the fast-tracked process to the “goodwill” Buhari had built over decades of bilateral engagement, as well as the strategic diplomatic intervention led by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its High Commission in London.
He specifically commended Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar and the Nigerian High Commission in London for their “tireless effort, strategic coordination, and dignified representation of our country.”
The Vice President also extended gratitude to the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Mr David Lammy, and British diplomat Ms Kate Airey, who helped navigate protocols at Heathrow Airport with “efficiency and empathy.”
Shettima further acknowledged the cooperation of the governments of Niger Republic, Algeria, and France, who granted expedited overflight and airspace clearances, enabling the swift return of both Buhari’s body and delegations attending other state burials.
“Diplomacy is not only the art of negotiation. It is also the art of shared humanity,” Shettima said, reflecting on the international solidarity that followed Buhari’s death.
He described Buhari as “a man who gave his youth to the military, his adulthood to national service, and his twilight to the sacred cause of reform,” adding that the former president lived simply and served selflessly, without craving public applause.
“President Buhari chose a path of modesty and restraint. His life was anchored in service—sincere, steady, and at times solitary,” Shettima noted.
According to him, Buhari was laid to rest in his ancestral home in Daura, not as a former Head of State, but “as a son returned,” in line with his personal wish for a modest burial close to the soil that shaped his values.
Shettima, who led the delegation to London to retrieve Buhari’s remains, said it was an honour entrusted to him by President Bola Tinubu, whose “progressive interventions,” he said, continue to reflect Buhari’s legacy.
He concluded his remarks by offering prayers for Buhari’s eternal rest: “May Allah, in His infinite mercy, grant former President Muhammadu Buhari Aljannah Firdaus.
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