From the moment I received the news of the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari, I was left with a profound sense of bereavement and a consciousness of a loss that is too deep for words.
I considered President Muhammadu Buhari a friend and a father figure.
He was a man of dignity and integrity, steadfast in his resolve and tenacious in his determination to follow through on the commitments he made, whether to himself or his associates, family or our nation.
He was a statesman who occupied a unique place in the psyche and history of a country he loved and served for over 60 years.
Life teaches us the inevitability of death and the certainty of loss.
We learn this lesson through grief at the passing of friends and family, colleagues, and acquaintances.
Eventually, if one lives long enough, one becomes steeled by the anguish of compounding loss.
Yet, ever so often, death surprises you even when it shouldn’t.
Here we are, a nation in mourning, shocked by a loss we could foresee, but could never be prepared for because Muhammadu Buhari, the soldier, the administrator and the politician, has been so long a part of our national consciousness that it seems impossible to imagine any other reality.
It will forever be one of the great honours of my life that I got to know, work with and enjoy the friendship of Muhammadu Buhari.
As Speaker of the House of Representatives, I enjoyed the unflinching and unalloyed support of President Buhari throughout the tenacious machinations of many who sought to use him and his office to undermine the parliament for the sake of political interests.
When these machinations became a distraction and I went to him, he assured me that only the national interests mattered to him and that as long as I continued to serve that interest, I would have his support.
As was his nature, he remained true to his word and thoroughly resisted those attempts to sabotage the House and, in doing so, enabled a period of stability that allowed the 9th National Assembly to be a legislature of policy innovation dedicated to the service of the Nigerian people.
This, too, is his legacy, and it is a worthy legacy indeed.
I am glad that I had the opportunity many times to thank him for his support and to appreciate him for his service to our country.
Like all of us, Muhammadu Buhari was not infallible.
Over the course of his decades in the public eye, he made his mistakes and his imperfections were inevitably magnified by being in full view.
That is the price of public life. Yet, despite his mistakes one thing was always certain, he was an honourable and dignified man, a fine soldier and statesman who loved his country passionately.
Whatever else, we must remember that and honour the life he lived and the contributions he made to nation building.
My family and I extend our condolences to the former first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari, the children, and the extended Buhari family for the loss of their patriarch.
I urge them to be consoled by the profound accomplishments of President Buhari’s life, and the lessons of tenacity, dignity and grace that he embodied throughout his journey here on earth.
To all his friends and supporters across the country, let us continue the work of serving our nation so that by our joint efforts we may achieve the cause of a nation at peace, prosperous beyond our wildest dreams.
This is the highest tribute we can pay to the lanky general and great statesman of our country.
May Allah grant him Aljannah Firdaus and comfort his family now and forever.
**Gbajabiamila is the Chief of Staff to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
