Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was buried Tuesday evening at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State, following a State and Islamic funeral.
The burial, conducted in accordance with Islamic rites, took place at approximately 5:50 p.m.
The late president, whose body was draped in the green-white-green of the Nigerian flag, had expressed a personal wish to be laid to rest at home rather than in a public cemetery or national monument.
A military gun salute rang out in honour of the former president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. His official citation was read by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Chris Musa.
The solemn occasion drew dignitaries from within and outside Nigeria. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and several African leaders were in attendance. Notable among them were President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea-Bissau, Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine, former Nigerien President Issoufou Mahamadou, and Nigeria’s former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Also present were Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, and a number of state governors, including Katsina State’s Governor Dikko Radda. Other governors in attendance included those from Imo, Kwara, Gombe, Borno, Lagos, Kano, Ogun, Zamfara, and more. Former cabinet members who served under Buhari’s administration were also on hand to pay their last respects.
Earlier in the day, President Tinubu received the late president’s remains at Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina. He arrived at 1:42 p.m., inspecting a guard of honour before the Nigerian Air Force jet carrying Buhari’s body landed at 1:51 p.m.
The casket, wrapped in the national colours, was received in a solemn procession. Military pallbearers from the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force wheeled the casket past a full military guard of honour to a waiting hearse.
Buhari passed away on Sunday, July 13, 2025, in a London hospital at the age of 82. His death marked the close of a defining era in Nigeria’s political landscape, having served both as military Head of State and as a two-term democratically elected President.
His interment in Daura, the town of his birth, fulfilled a lifelong personal wish — a final return to the place he called home.
