Aisha Muhammed reflects on father’s simplicity, 50 years after Murtala’s assassination

Aisha Muhammed, daughter of former Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, has spoken on her father’s leadership style and simple lifestyle, saying those values shaped his enduring legacy but also made him vulnerable to assassination.

Speaking on ARISE News’ Morning Show to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, Aisha, who is Chief Executive Officer of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, described her father as a leader who embodied accountability, responsibility, and discipline. She said the late Head of State was deeply committed to fighting corruption, which he considered a “cankerworm” capable of destroying society, and lived out his anti-corruption stance through his personal conduct. According to her, General Muhammed deliberately avoided the trappings of power, rejecting motorcades, sirens, and heavy security details, preferring instead to live like an ordinary Nigerian. “If you know, my father didn’t go around with motorcades and sirens and a lot of security. Now, there are people who say to me, 50 years later, it must have been quite painful because of the loss, but that was what he embodied. “So, and that was why it was actually easy to assassinate him, because he didn’t have a whole slew of security with him. “He was in traffic just like everybody else. In fact, the traffic wardens stopped them, and they stopped, just like everybody else, and that was when the coup plotters came out from behind the sectarian barricade, and then he was shot,” she said. General Murtala Muhammed came to power in July 1975 after ousting General Yakubu Gowon in a bloodless coup. Though his tenure lasted only 200 days, it was marked by sweeping reforms. He dismissed over 10,000 public officials accused of corruption, created seven new states, and initiated plans for Nigeria’s transition to civilian rule. His administration also began the process that eventually led to the relocation of the nation’s capital from Lagos to Abuja.

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