Late President Muhammadu Buhari deserves to be immortalised. However, not with anything from Borno State again—because he already has too many edifices named after him in the state, and he is not from there. Also, Borno State has many prominent people, both alive and deceased, who, in my opinion, deserve the honour more than the late President Buhari—so that their children can aspire to be like their leaders. Let me explain…
- Maiduguri International Airport was renamed Muhammadu Buhari International Airport in June 2023 by President Tinubu.
This shouldn’t have happened. Nigeria has 32 airports, 26 of which are operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and five are functional international airports. Apart from the international airports in the former federal capital, Lagos, and the current capital, Abuja—and the sycophancy that occurred in Niger State where Dr. Abubakar Imam Kagara International Airport was renamed Bola Tinubu Airport in March 2024—every airport in this country is named after an indigene of the state or someone from the geopolitical zone where the airport is located.
Why not Borno? And after taking the name of the airport from them, why take the name of UNIMAID away? And why now?
- President Buhari already has enough edifices named after him in Borno State.
Inside the University of Maiduguri, the multi-million-naira Senate Building was named Muhammadu Buhari Senate Building in 2018. There is a Trauma Centre inside the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital named Muhammadu Buhari Trauma Centre (November 2020). There is also a female hostel in the university named after Aisha Muhammadu Buhari (April 2016).
You must agree with me that this is too much for one person in one state—a state he did not even hail from. Haba!
- No university in Nigeria is named after a man who neither built it nor hailed from the state where the university is located.
Buhari did not build the University of Maiduguri. He is not from Borno State.
- The Kanuri need honour in their land.
The Kanuri are the fifth-largest ethnic group in Nigeria. Beyond Nigeria, they are also found in Cameroon, Niger Republic, and Chad. These people are known to have created a civilisation that traces direct descent from the Kanem-Bornu Empire, founded sometime before 1000 CE. I mean before the Christian Era. I’m talking about a civilisation that flourished in the years following the traditional year of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Most importantly, the Kanuri tribe has produced prominent individuals such as Kashim Ibrahim, Ibrahim Imam, Zannah Bukar Dipcharima, Shettima Ali Monguno, Abba Habib, Aliyu Mai-Borno (first indigenous CBN Governor), Muhammad Ngileruma, Baba Gana Kingibe, former GNPP leader Waziri Ibrahim, former military ruler Sani Abacha, and former presidential candidate Bashir Tofa. In Niger Republic, Kanuri-origin political leaders include former Prime Minister Mamane Oumarou and former President Mamadou Tandja.
How can anyone justify the renaming of both the international airport, where these people are dominant, and now the university they are proud of—especially in the presence of such notable figures?
I agree that President Buhari deserves to be immortalised. However, President Tinubu can do better by immortalising him elsewhere, not in Borno State again. Buhari already has too much presence in Borno. It is a place that has no shortage of equally important people.
By the way, do you think Vice President Kashim Shettima was consulted before the renaming? And, by the way, what happened to the Federal University of Transportation, Daura?
