You won’t have much to inherit from me, Buhari tells family

President Muhammadu Buhari has advised his children to acquire enough education and then work hard to be self-reliant, saying he would leave behind very little for them to inherit. “Buhari insisted that all of

his girls continue their education through the tertiary level,” American Professor, John Paden, said in “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria,” his latest biography on the Nigerian President.

“This they did, although one continued in higher education after she was married. He told them explicitly that education would give them self-reliance, and that he would not have much in the way of an inheritance to leave to his family.

“Today, Buhari’s entire family are not only well educated but also speak English, and are comfortable within the broader Nigerian and international context.”

In terms of material wealth, it is difficult to tell how much Mr. Buhari is worth, making it impossible to estimate what inheritance he might bequeath to his family.

The president is yet to fulfil an electoral promise to make full details of his assets public.

Following widespread pressure from Nigerians, the President, on September 3, 2015, provided snippets of information regarding his declared assets.

According to a press statement by Garba Shehu,  Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Buhari had N30 million in his bank account before taking office on May 29.

The president owns five houses in Kaduna, Daura, Kano and Abuja, and has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt.

Mr. Buhari also has farms, an orchard, ranch, livestock, including 270 cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees, according to the statement.

He has an unstated “number of cars”.

The statement by Mr. Shehu painstakingly highlighted how Mr. Buhari, as a former leader who also served as petroleum minister and head of the petroleum development fund, was worth so measly in a country where less important officials are worth several billions of naira.

Mr. Buhari has one bank account (with the Union Bank), no foreign account, no factory, no enterprises, and no oil wells, the statement said.

It said the president has shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank.

Two of his houses in his native Daura are mud-made, the statement said.

“He borrowed money from the old Barclays Bank to build two of his homes,” the statement said.

“The documents also showed that the retired General uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the federal government in his capacity as former Head of State.  The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.”

It remains unclear whether the President plans to dispose of  some of these assets or pass them all to his family

Source: Premium Times