Former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has hailed the late former President Muhammadu Buhari as a patriotic soldier whose efforts during the Biafran War helped preserve Nigeria’s unity — a legacy he says is largely unacknowledged in the South-East.
Ngige made the remarks during an interview with Arise TV, following Buhari’s death in London on Sunday.
He praised the former president as a committed nationalist and war veteran who dedicated himself fully to the cause of national unity.
“Nigerians should know he is a patriot. He (Buhari) is a man who loves Nigeria. He fought the civil war to keep Nigeria as one, though my people from the South-East will not acknowledge that fact. But he did it,” Ngige stated.
Ngige recounted a personal conversation with Buhari in which the former president described how he remained on the frontlines throughout the war without taking a break, unlike many other officers.
“I told him (Buhari) I also fought in the war. He then recounted his experience of how General Danjuma always sent him to where the war was thick because he knew he would not say no, and while other officers were taking leave to go home, he would be there for General Danjuma,” Ngige recalled.
His comments are similar to controversial position Buhari took in 2022, when he referenced his role in the civil war as a justification for how to deal with separatist unrest in the South-East.
In 2021, amid heightened tension in the region, Buhari drew outrage after warning that the Igbos would “soon have the shock of their lives,” invoking his military role during the Nigerian Civil War.
The war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970, claimed the lives of over a million people, most of them civilians from the South-East.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” Buhari said.
