Murtala Muhammed embodied democratic ideals with military discipline — Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday described the late Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, as “a military officer with democratic traditions and love in his veins,” saying his short-lived administration laid a solid foundation for Nigeria’s return to civil rule and Africa’s liberation.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, Tinubu spoke at a commemorative event organised by the Murtala Muhammed Foundation in Abuja, attended by former African presidents, diplomats and traditional rulers.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu salutes the family and the Foundation for this event. He says Murtala Muhammed was a military officer with democratic traditions and love in his veins.”

According to him, within the brief period he presided over Nigeria, the late leader “put in place a very meticulous policy to return our country to its potential democracy,” adding that although his life was cut short, “he had put in place a very solid team that ensured stability of government and our unity as a nation.”

Akume noted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who succeeded Muhammed, continued the transition programme with the support of members of the Supreme Military Council. “It was a very good team, crediting them with sustaining the focus on democratic restoration.

The President said Muhammed confronted corruption “headlong,” fighting it “with all his skills and talents given to him by God,” and earned the backing of his colleagues in the military council. “That fight will continue to be remembered and to be respected by all Nigerians,” he added.

Tinubu also highlighted Muhammed’s commitment to African liberation, saying he “believed in Africa” and sought the “total deconstruction of colonial rule on the continent.”

He recalled Nigeria’s role in the decolonisation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, and in the eventual dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.

Reflecting on the day Muhammad was assassinated in 1976, Akume said he was a university student at the time and remembered the shock that gripped the country.

“Students mobilised, University of Ibadan, the Polytechnic of Ibadan, who joined the University of Lagos to protest this unwarranted interruption in the governance of their country,” he said.

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Urging Nigerians not to despair about the continent’s future, Tinubu expressed optimism about Africa’s prospects.

Citing conversations with former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, he said Nigeria’s global footprint in medicine and technology underscored its potential. “We have a big future,” he declared.

He defended ongoing reforms under his administration, insisting that “our 8-point agenda is working” and warning against what he called “cheap politics on issues that are very germane to our existence as a nation.”

On the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, the President said critics should consider its economic value. “It takes you over 12 hours to travel from Lagos to Calabar. Once this project is completed, it takes you just five hours, as he described it as vital to economic growth and national integration.

Tinubu maintained that leadership is defined by ideas rather than age. “Leadership has nothing to do with physical age, but the age of your ideas, adding that those who seek to govern “must present manifestos and ideas before our people.”

He said, paying tribute to the Muhammed family and praying for the repose of the late leader’s soul.

“Today we are here to celebrate a great man who took leave of this country prematurely. But Almighty Allah knew why he left at that time,” he said.

Also speaking, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, reflected on his personal ties to the late Head of State, describing him as both a guardian and role model.

“Late General Murtala Muhammed was my uncle. He was my guardian when I was in King’s College. I lived in his house. “His life had a great influence on mine. He was a role model and a hero, as he was to most of us.”

Sanusi revisited Muhammed’s famous 1975 “Africa has come of age” speech, noting that his father, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, was involved in its drafting alongside Ambassador Olu Adeniji, Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman and Dr. Patrick Wilmot.

“If you ask any African or any Nigerian what they took away from that speech, they would say two words: pride and dignity. “And the reality is that that is what we have lost.”

The Emir recalled how Muhammed once rebuffed then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. “Imagine at that time someone as powerful as Henry Kissinger wanting to come to Nigeria and General Murtala Muhammed telling him you are not welcome. How many African heads of state can do that today?” he asked.

“If Murtala Muhammed had taken money from his country and stashed it in a U.S. or Swiss bank account, he would never have given that speech, challenging African leaders to reclaim the continent’s lost pride.

“The day Africans are able to hold their heads high as we did in 1975 and 1976, as equal human beings with every race and every nation, the day we are able to do that is the day we have come of age,” he said.