You Won’t Have Much To Inherit From Me, President Buhari Tells Family

President Muhammadu Buhari has told his children the only legacy he would be leaving for them is the acquisition of education

The president told his children to be self-reliant, noting that he would leave behind very little for them to inherit.

He said this in his biography written by American Professor, John Paden, titled “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria.

“Buhari insisted that all of his girls continue their education through the tertiary level.”

According to the book: “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.”

However, it is difficult to know the president’s worth thereby making it impossible to estimate what inheritance he might bequeath to his family since the president is yet to make full details of his assets public.

On September 3, 2015, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity provided snippets of information regarding his declared assets.

According to a press statement by Garba Shehu, President Buhari had N30 million in his bank account before taking office on May 29.

Going further, he said 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.

He 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.”

President 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.”

Premium Times reports that it remains unclear whether the president plans to dispose of some of these assets or pass them all to his family.