By Ope Adetayo and Chinedu Asadu
Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who led the country twice as a military head of state and a democratic president, has died aged 82, his press secretary said Sunday.
Buhari died Sunday in London, where he had been receiving medical treatment.
He first took power in Africa’s most populous nation in 1983, after a military coup, running an authoritarian regime until fellow soldiers ousted him less than 20 months later. When he was elected in 2015 on his fourth attempt, he became the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election there.
Buhari rode into power in that election on a wave of goodwill after promising to rid Nigeria of chronic corruption and a deadly security crisis. He led until 2023, during a period marked by Boko Haram’s extremist violence in the northeast and a plunging economy.
Current President Bola Tinubu in a statement described Buhari as “a
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