26 things you did not know about Nigeria's President-elect Muhammadu Buhari

On March 31, 2015, Muhammadu Buhari was elected as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on his fouth attempt to become a democratically elected president. He will be sworn in as President on May 29, 2015.

Here are twenty-six things that you probably did not know about Muhammadu Buhari. Share your own interesting facts in the comments too

1. He is the fifteenth president (military and demoractic) in Nigeria's history
2. He was born on December 17, 1942 in Daura Katsina state to his father, Adamu, and his mother, Zulaihat.
3. He is the twenty-third child of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about three or four.
4. Buhari joined the Nigerian Army in 1961, when he attended the Nigerian Military Training College (in February 1964, it was renamed the Nigerian Defence Academy) in Kaduna State.
5. He underwent officer cadets training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in England.
6. In January 1963, Buhari was commissioned as second lieutenant, and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
7. From November 1963 to January 1964, Buhari attended the Platoon Commanders’ Course at the Nigerian Military College, at Kaduna.
8. In 1964, he facilitated his military training by attending the Mechanical Transport Officer’s Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, United Kingdom.
9. From 1965 to 1967, Buhari served as Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion. He was appointed Brigade Major, Second Sector, First Infantry Division, April 1967 to July 1967.
10. Buhari was made Brigade Major of the Third Infantry Brigade, July 1967 to October 1968 and Brigade Major/Commandant, Thirty-first Infantry Brigade, 1970 to 1971.
11. Buhari served as the Assistant Adjutant-General, First Infantry Division Headquarters, from 1971 to 1972. He also attended the Defense Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973.
12. In 1971, Buhari married his first wife, Safinatu (née Yusuf) Buhari (First lady of Nigeria, December 1983-August 1985). They had five children together, four girls and one boy.
13. From 1974 to 1975 Buhari was Acting Director of Transport and Supply at the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport Headquarters.
14. He was also Military Secretary at the Army Headquarters from 1978 to 1979 and was a member of the Supreme Military Council from 1978 to 1979.
15. From 1979 to 1980, at the rank of colonel, Buhari (class of 1980) attended the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the United States, and gained a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies.
16. Upon completion of the on-campus full-time resident program lasting ten months and the two-year-long, distance learning program, the United States Army War College (USAWC) college awards its graduate officers a master's degree in Strategic Studies.
17. He served as the military ruler of Nigeria (December 31, 1983 - August 27, 1985)
18. In 1988, Buhari and his first wife Safinatu were divorced. In December 1989, Buhari married his second and current wife Aisha (née Halilu) Buhari. They also have five children.
19. In 1983, Major-General Buhari and Major-General Tunde Idiagbon were selected to lead the country by middle and high-ranking military officers after a successful military coup d'etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari on December.
20. In 1985, Buhari was himself overthrown in a coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida on August 27th, and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC) ostensibly, because he insisted on investigating allegations of fraudulent award of contracts in the Ministry of Defence.
21. Buhari contested the Presidential election as the candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party on 2003.
22. On 14 January 2006, Safinatu Buhari, the former first lady, died from complications of diabetes. She was buried at Unguwar Rimi cemetery in accordance with Islamic rites.
23. On 18th December 2006, Gen. Buhari was nominated as the consensus candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party.
24. His main challenger in the 2007 April polls was the ruling PDP's Umaru Yar'Adua, who is also from the same state - Katsina and he lost. In March 2010, Buhari left the ANPP for the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party that he had helped to found.
25. Buhari was the CPC Presidential candidate in the 16 April 2011 general election, running against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and Ibrahim Shekarau of ANPP.
26. In November 2012, Buhari's first daughter, Zulaihat (née Buhari) Junaid, died from sickle cell anaemia, two days after having a baby at a hospital in Kaduna.