President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has delivered a stirring tribute to the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, hailing him as a disciplined, principled patriot who gave his all in service to the nation.
Speaking during a special session of the Federal Executive Council meeting held in honour of the late former President in Abuja on Thursday, Akpabio addressed a high-profile audience that included President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, members of the National Assembly, federal ministers, and foreign dignitaries. He described the occasion as “a moment in the life of a nation when she must pause, not out of routine, but out of reverence.”
“Today is such a moment,” Akpabio declared. “We gather in very solemn remembrance of President Muhammadu Buhari, a man forged in the furnace of battle and tempered in the trials of government. A man who gave everything he had to a country that asked everything of him.”
While acknowledging that Buhari was not perfect—“no leader is,” he said—Akpabio emphasised the former president’s moral compass and commitment to public service over personal gain.
“He stood for something, and in a world where it is easy to chase headlines, he chose instead to chase honour. Where others sought glory, he sought duty,” Akpabio said. “As a minister of his country, appointed by him, I saw President Muhammadu Buhari on the plot.”
“He was not flamboyant—far from it. His voice was measured, his steps deliberate, his public demeanour austere. But beneath that calm exterior beat the heart of a great patriot, unyielding, unbending, and utterly uninterested in personal comfort, but duty called.”
Akpabio praised Buhari’s dual legacy as both a military and civilian leader, highlighting his consistent commitment to national service across decades.
“He served his nation first in uniform, and decades later he returned to serve it once more,” he said. “Whether clad in khaki or in civilian robes, through coups and campaigns, crises and crisis, he never wavered in his belief in the promise of Nigeria.”
The Senate President credited Buhari with a legacy of “monumental achievements,” saying they were “too many, too vast, and too significant” to fully list. He described the late president as a man who left “his boots and imprints” in the corridors of power.
“President Buhari believed that discipline mattered, that integrity mattered, that leadership, even when lonely, must be anchored in something greater than power,” Akpabio said. “He did not seek to ride waves of popular acclaim. He worked with steadiness, and often in solitude, along with the reach of national conscience.”
Paying homage to Buhari’s tenacity, Akpabio said: “Let us be honest—he was tough. He was a soldier who did not flinch under fire, a leader who did not flee from responsibility, and above all, a Nigerian whose loyalty to this nation was never up for sale.”
According to him, Buhari’s toughness was not born out of ego but out of “a fierce, unrelenting belief that Nigeria, with all its challenges, was still worth fighting for.”
“And yes, some disagreed with him—that is the nature of democracy—but even his fiercest critics will admit that he did not pay for the nation’s faults, nor pander to its pleasures,” he said. “He remained, to the very end, a sentiment of Spartan simplicity and austere integrity.”
Concluding with an emotional appeal to history, Akpabio said:
“Let it be said by generations to come that a man once walked this land with a firm gaze, a steady gaze, and an iron sense of duty. His name was Muhammadu Buhari, former president and former commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. May God bless his memory, and may he soon rest in peace.”
He ended with a prayer: “May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria as it stands.”
Boluwatife Enome
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