Why IBB sent Buhari bag of money – Prof Paden

President Muhammadu Buhari’s biographer, Professor John Paden, has alleged that former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda, IBB, gave President Muhammadu Buhari a bag of money to share to Nigerians in 1988.

In his book titled “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria,” Paden said after Buhari was released from detention in 1988, Babangida sent him “a bag of money” which he (Buhari) “distributed to the poor.”

According to Paden, “Buhari had married Safinatu Yusuf in 1971, and they had five children, a son and four daughters. In the end, Buhari and Safinatu would be divorced in 1988. He would marry Aisha Halilu in 1989, after his release from detention. They would also have five children.

“After the death of his mother in December 1988, Buhari was released and travelled to Daura for the mourning. When he arrived in Daura, he found his farm much as he had left it. His senior brother (the father of Mamman Daura), along with the Barden Daura, had managed the cattle, sheep, and horses in his absence, although a number of cattle had been sold off to pay for feed during the drought.

“Buhari was still in debt to the bank for building his home. Yet now he had no income. At that time there was no program to provide retirement funds for former heads of state. Babangida agreed to a policy to pay Buhari his military pension, a modest 1,643 naira per month for ten years.

“Babangida had originally sent Buhari “a bag of money,” but Buhari refused it and had it distributed to the poor. Buhari had negotiated his pension funds with Air Vice Marshal (rtd) Hamza Abdullahi, a military governor of Kano, who acted on behalf of Babangida.”