Halima Buhari, daughter of former President Muhammadu Buhari, has revealed that her late father was acutely aware that many Nigerians were disappointed with his administration.
She spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at the Yar’Adua Centre during the public presentation of a book, Headlines and Soundbites: Media Moments That Defined an Administration, authored by former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
The event drew former ministers, past governors, a sitting governor, traditional rulers and political leaders from the All Progressives Congress and the African Democratic Congress.
Speaking at the event, Halima Buhari said her father understood that the huge hopes Nigerians placed in him were not fully realised, especially in the areas of security and economic management.
She described leadership in Nigeria as far more complex than it appeared from the outside, shaped by difficult choices and constant pressure.
Drawing from her experience as a close observer of power, she said the former president wrestled daily with the human consequences of governance.
She said, “Behind every soundbite, there was a human being; sometimes tired, sometimes determined, sometimes frustrated, always painfully aware that his decisions impacted millions of lives.
“That human being was our father. I saw a side of him that never appeared on television and was rarely captured in print.
“I saw the man who would sit quietly, listening more than he spoke. The man who worried about the security of ordinary people.
“The man who agonised over the gap between what was promised and what was possible.”
Halima noted that while Nigerians knew him as President Buhari, at home he was simply “Baba,” adding that leadership often demanded compromises that were invisible to the public.
“For the public, he was President Buhari. For us at home, he was simply ‘Baba.’ Leadership, especially in a country as complex as Nigeria, is never as straightforward as it looks from the outside.
“It involves trade-offs, compromises, and very often, imperfect choices.”
She stressed that her father was never insulated from criticism, contrary to popular belief, and listened carefully to both anger and appreciation from citizens.
“My father was not unaware of the criticism levelled against him. He knew that many Nigerians felt that more would have been done or done differently,” she said.
“He heard the voices of those who were disappointed, just as he heard the gratitude of those who felt their lives had improved.”
According to Halima, as reported by the Nigerian Tribune, the gathering was not meant to impose a single verdict on Buhari’s years in office. She said his legacy would rightly remain a subject of debate.
“Our presence here today is not to rewrite that history or to insist on a single interpretation of his years in office,” he said.
“Nigerians will continue to debate his legacy as they should in a vibrant democracy.
“There will be books that praise, books that criticise, and books that will try to document.”
She added that Lai Mohammed’s book offers an insider account of governance and public communication, shaped by the realities of managing power under intense public scrutiny.
“This particular book, written by someone who was in the inner circle of communication and messaging, provides one important perspective of how an administration must be shaped and sometimes challenged in the court of public opinion,” she said.