Muhammadu Buhari is to be sworn in as Nigeria’s President on the 29th April.
This is after winning a historic presidential election in March and comes three decades after he seized power in a military coup.
Buhari is the first opposition candidate to oust a sitting president through the ballot box. His win also means that this will be the first transfer of power from one political party to another, achieved through voting.
Buhari will be taking over from president Goodluck Jonathan administration that has been dogged with an Islamic insurgency and several high profile scandals in the oil sector. This means he is taking over an economy creaking under the weight of slowing growth and rising inflation.
Muhammadu Buhari , 72, is the President elect of Nigeria and a retired Major General in the Nigerian Army who was Head of State of Nigeria from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’etat.
Buhari ran unsuccessfully for the office of President in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections. In the year 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 2015 elections.
He won the 2015 general election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. When he takes office on 29 May 2015 as scheduled it will mark the first time in Nigeria’s history that an incumbent elected President will peacefully transfer power to an elected leader of the opposition.
Buhari has stated that he takes responsibility for whatever happened under his watch during his military rule, saying that he cannot change the past.
