President Bola Tinubu has renamed the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State after former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tinubu announced this on Thursday during an expanded FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in honour of the former Nigerian leader.
“Before we take the prayers — in honour of his [Buhari’s] memory, with this special session of the Federal Executive Council (expanded) — can we adopt the naming of the University of Maiduguri with a new name — Muhammadu Buhari University, Maiduguri,” the President said at the end of the FEC meeting amid applause from attendees, including ministers who served under Buhari, and his son, Yusuf.
At the event, President Tinubu, who led tributes for Buhari, described him as a man of integrity who lived a respectful life.
“Yet it was in the quiet and unadorned settings of his private life that his true greatness was revealed: pious without show, just without cruelty, humane without sentimentality, temperate without coldness, and sincere without guile,” the former Lagos State governor said.
“Steady in posture and spirit, dignified in bearing, and commanding by his very presence, his example guided all who encountered him. Still, it endures.”
“And, to those whom he loved most intimately, he was unfailingly tender, loyal, and good. His life was a rebuke to vice and a refuge for virtue. The purity of his private character gave radiance to the discipline and integrity of his public service,” he said.
Buhari, a former Nigerian leader, died in London on July 13 after a prolonged illness and was buried on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by dignitaries within and outside the country.
He was Nigeria’s second-longest-serving leader.
Buhari was a military head of state between 1983 and 1985. The Katsina-born was later elected as Nigeria’s president, serving the country between 2015 and 2023.
