I Joined Army To Avoid Early Marriage — Buhari

Late former President Muhammadu Buhari said that his decision to join the Nigerian Army was driven by a desire to escape an arranged early marriage by his family in his native Daura town, in present-day Katsina State.

Buhari made the disclosure in a lighthearted moment and conversation with his former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami, in what appeared to be the former President’s residence in Daura, Katsina State, after he left office as President in 2023.

The video of the conversation resurfaced hours after former President Buhari’s death at the London Clinic on Sunday afternoon.

In the now viral three-minute-long video clip on social media, Buhari, seen in high spirits, offered a rare glimpse into his private life, recalling events shortly after completing his secondary school education at the time.

Pantami had reminded Buhari his military exploits around 1984 to 1985 in Gombe, then in the old Bauchi State.

Responding to why he joined the Army, Buhari said: “Firstly, I joined the military because my family wanted me to marry, hence I escaped it through the Army.”

He further explained that, “After my nine-year education in Katsina. Remember, senior primary school then was three years while secondary education was six years, so I spent nine years in Katsina.”

“After I returned home, they arranged for me to marry and I got to know when one day I was out of the house and I met someone whom I didn’t know was my uncle. He had never visited Daura before then and on sighting me, he asked me to take him to my mother. I initially hesitated, but he reprimanded me and I compied and thereafter went about my business. When I returned, my mother told me the guest was my father’s brother that he had already given his daughter’s hand in marriage to me, whether he was alive or not,” Buhari recounted with a chuckle.

He said the challenge at the time was that when he completed his secondary education, he was offered a job to become the Head of Cooperatives Department with a salary of £12.10, a motorcycle, a wife, and then remain there for life.

“At that point, I just ran off to the military,” Buhari said with a laughter. “My mother was so upset because of that, so I kept apologising to her throughout her lifetime because she said she wanted to see the offspring of her last child. That’s how I ended up in the Army.”

LEADERSHIP reports that late Buhari, who ruled Nigeria as a military head of state from 1983 to 1985 and later as a democratically elected president between 2015 and 2023, passed away on Sunday in a London hospital at the age of 82 after a prolonged illness.