WHY BUHARI RELOCATED FROM DAURA TO KADUNA
WHY BUHARI RELOCATED FROM DAURA TO KADUNA Former President Muhammadu Buhari recently relocated to his known residence on Sultan Lane, GRA, Kaduna. Since Buhari exited the Presidential Villa in Abuja on May 29, 2023, he had been in his country home in Daura, Katsina State until recently. Credible sources said his relocation to Daura was actually a stop gap measure after leaving office pending the completion of his Kaduna house. It was learnt that the house was demolished and thereafter rebuilt by one of the leading construction companies in Nigeria. Inside FG’s 2024-2027 roadmap for Nigerian womenRimin Gado women cap-makers redefining entrepreneurshipWhen one of our correspondents visited the location of the house, there were heavily armed security operatives, making it difficult to go much close to the building. He, however, managed to get a picture of the area, even as the newly built house could be seen from the distance. The Kaduna house is where Buhari was known to reside prior to his swearing in as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2015. The house used to be a modest edifice said to have been built when he was serving as a senior officer in the army and years before he became head of state in 1983. During those years, visitors to the house were often surprised at the modesty of the entire building, which stood on a vast compound, compared to what other former heads of state have as abodes. The duplex stood in front of a lawn, which took most of the space on the plot accommodating the house. For the eight years that Buhari held sway as president, sources said not much was done to upgrade the house as he spent his vacation mostly in his home town of Daura. Careful about his modest lifestyle, the former president has always insisted that he did not use his office either as military head of state or president to enrich himself. Close to the end of his second tenure in 2023, Buhari surprised many when he gave notice that on leaving office, he would be returning to Daura instead of Kaduna to stay away as far as possible from the seat of power in Abuja. When he handed over to President Bola Tinubu, Buhari retired straight to Daura, where he lived for close to two years. In an interview on NTA’s ‘Conversations With History’ aired in November 2023, Buhari had said: “People charter buses and come to see me from time to time. I thought I had stayed as far away from Abuja as possible, but they still come. I would have gone to Niger if the borders were opened.” And at a recent event organised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina, Buhari emphasised that he had just three houses, two in Kaduna; one, which he was occupying before he became president, and another, which he said he had put up for rent. The third one is his country home in Daura. Sources said it was while he was in Daura that the Kaduna house was “reconstructed completely,” befitting his status as a former military head of state and later, president. Relocation In a surprising twist to his earlier promise, Buhari relocated to Kaduna to a well redesigned and reconstructed edifice. The surprise for many is the ease with which the edifice came out, given the acclaimed frugal nature of the former president and his preference for a near Spartan lifestyle. Our correspondent, who visited the area, observed that the narrow street where the former president’s residence is located was largely deserted, with only a few vehicles parked in front of neighbouring houses. Soldiers and policemen were seen stationed at the entrance gate, along with…
Dons Eze
