President Bola Tinubu has announced the renaming of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State to Muhammadu Buhari University in honour of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The announcement was made during an expanded Federal Executive Council (FEC) session held on Thursday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was dedicated to paying tribute to the former Nigerian leader.
“Before we take the prayers — in honour of his memory, with this special session of the Federal Executive Council (expanded) — can we adopt the naming of the University of Maiduguri with a new name — Muhammadu Buhari University, Maiduguri,” Tinubu said at the close of the session.
The declaration was met with applause from the audience, which included serving and former ministers as well as Buhari’s son, Yusuf Buhari.
President Tinubu led the tributes, describing Buhari as a man of deep personal integrity and public discipline.
“It was in the quiet and unadorned settings of his private life that his true greatness was revealed,” Tinubu said.
“Pious without show, just without cruelty, humane without sentimentality, temperate without coldness, and sincere without guile.”
He added that Buhari’s life was “a rebuke to vice and a refuge for virtue,” noting that his example would continue to inspire generations of Nigerians.
Buhari died in London on July 13, 2025, following a prolonged illness. He was buried in Daura, Katsina State, on Tuesday, July 15, in a ceremony attended by President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Governor Dikko Radda, and dignitaries from across Nigeria and beyond.
Buhari was Nigeria’s second-longest-serving leader, having served as military Head of State from 1983 to 1985, and later as a democratically elected president from 2015 to 2023.
