Tunde Olusunle
I had reason last July to do a postscript to the list of alumni of the University of Ilorin who were conferred with honours as part of activities commemorating the golden jubilee of the institution. True there were deserving former students of the institution who were recognised, some omissions were, however, too glaring, too loud to be ignored.
Among others, I questioned the oversight of the immediate past Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed. He remains the only alumnus of the citadel, which prides itself as the “Better By Far” university, to have made it to this exalted public office. I equally queried the non-listing of Dr. Abdulfatai Omotayo Buhari, who is equally the first and only Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to have come through the mills of Unilorin, the way we abbreviate our revered alma mater.
To be sure, Buhari is a serving, fourth-term member of the national assembly. He cut his teeth in the House of Representatives, as banner-bearer for Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Ori-Ire federal constituency of Oyo State, between 2003 and 2007. He returned as Senator representing Oyo North District in 2015, perhaps the largest in sheer landmass and number of local government areas, 13, of the 33 councils in greater Oyo State.
He was reelected in 2019 and 2023, respectively and his political career has remained on the ascendancy. The listening leadership of the University of Ilorin under Professor Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, responded to my observation in my widely published addendum to the July 2025 awards, at the institution’s “50th Anniversary Alumni Colloquium Day and Award Presentations,” last November. Former Governor Ahmed and Senator Buhari topped the list of deserving honorees.
Since his graduation with an honours degree in Business Administration from Unilorin in 1985, Fatai Buhari has had very broad-based experience in the private and public sectors which prepared him for his contemporary preoccupations in public service. In Unilorin, we knew him as a “quadrangular student” whose daily itinerary was the lecture room, library, cafeteria, “makeshift football pitch” where we regularly played improvised “five-a-side” and the hostel. He cut his teeth in the erstwhile UTC/SCOA Motors Ltd, one of Nigeria’s foremost automobile distribution companies. He ascended to the level of Deputy General Manager, (DGM) Marketing in the organisation, garnering awards and plaudits for impacting the books of the company.
The strategically adventurous Buhari incorporated his own vehicle distribution outfit, ABADAT Motors Ltd in 2000, with its headquarters in Abuja to take advantage of opportunities provided by the outset of the nation’s Fourth Republic.
In 2003, he was elected to represent the three local governments of Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Ori-Ire, in the House of Representatives. Despite being a first timer, Buhari made a very good impression on his constituents. He was famous for accessibility, humility and generosity, refusing to be distracted by the allure of high office which was the Waterloo of some of his colleagues. He refused to be infested by the bug of resentment for telephone calls, a potent malaise of many public servants and never tired to walk his guests to the elevators whenever they came calling. He was in the “green chamber” till 2007, when, like the proverbial ram which took several steps backwards before lunging forward, to recharge for the future.
Ever in the business of self-development and redevelopment, Buhari returned to the classrooms of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and the University of Abuja (now rechristened Yakubu Gowon University), where he obtained a Masters in Business Administration in 2009, and a Doctorate in Public Policy in 2013, respectively. He thus strategically recalibrated for higher, future service. Indeed, his experience was sought by the former Oyo State Governor, the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, who appointed him to serve as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs between 2014 and 2015. It was the same year, 2015, that Fatai Buhari was elected to represent Oyo North Senatorial Zone in the Nigerian Senate, a tacit vote of confidence in him for his services to his people and his state, in previous capacities.
Senator Fatai Buhari has been Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Industry, 2015 to 2019; Chairman, Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, and Land Transport, variously between 2019 and 2023, and is the incumbent Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation. On his present brief, Buhari has been both an activist and a proactive parliamentarian.
Worried about the trend where airlines with a very limited number of serviceable aircraft stretched themselves flying multiple routes, Buhari in October 2024, hinted that the Senate was articulating a bill to regulate the activities of routes plied by “airlines with three or fewer aircraft.” He spoke in Lagos at the 2024 edition of the South West Regional Air Transportation Summit. He expressed worries at the bitter experiences of passengers who flew such airlines that refused to codeshare. The Senate Committee on Aviation under Senator Buhari has equally launched rigorous inquiries into the sector to address public aggravations over safety standards, regulatory lapses, and the treatment of passengers.
Renowned for his strong advocacy for industry transparency and consumer protection, Buhari once warned that the government “will not tolerate procedural gaps or enforcement failures that undermine safety, professionalism or public trust in the aviation system.”
Last November, Buhari served notice of a pending public hearing on substance abuse following allegations against Nigerian pilots. He noted on that occasion that the safety of lives and overarching national interest made it compelling to have a public inquest into accusations of hard drug ingestion by pilots.
In December last year, Buhari took the floor of the Senate to draw attention to the sky-high rates charged by airlines during the yuletide, which were way beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians. He pleaded that the season of rest and rejuvenation for Nigerians across faiths should not become one of profound pain and inconvenience.
Amplifying the yearnings of his constituents for a federal university within their geo-cultural space, Senator Fatai Buhari was at the forefront of the actualization of the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology (FUNATO), located in Okeho, headquarters of Kajola local government area in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State. Approval for the establishment of the institution was granted in July 2025 by President Bola Tinubu, FUNATO is one of the 74 universities owned by the federal government out of a total of 309 such institutions in the country.
Vice-Chancellor of the newborn university, Prof. Jacob Babayemi, who led a delegation to appreciate Buhari for his yeomanry in pulling through the establishment of the tertiary institution, observed that “Buhari singularly contributed between 80 and 90 percent of the aggregate efforts which made the university a reality.” According to Professor Babayemi, history will be kind to Tinubu and Senator Buhari under whose watch the yearnings of the long-neglected Oke-Ogun region for tangible federal presence were realised.
Amongst his people in Oyo North, Senator Buhari bears the nickname of “Mr. Employment.” Rather than leverage his privileged position for self-enrichment like many of his vainglorious colleagues, Buhari has voted for the sustainable empowerment of his constituents with pensionable jobs. He considers this more eternally impactful. He has a briefcase brimming with the curriculum vitae of many educated and enthusiastic youngsters whom he has sworn to take off the dangerous streets as much as he can. At every opportunity, therefore, he whips out a few of the documents to canvas for job placements for them. Hyper-excited ones among them insist on photographs with their benefactor, which they in turn hoist on social media as a way of expressing their appreciation to him, even when he chooses reticence.
The approach of the 2027 general elections portends the imminence of a change of guards in Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, where Governor Seyi Makinde is winding down his second and concluding term in office. There is a strident clamour for the Oke-Ogun/Ibarapa zone of Oyo State to produce the next chief executive of the state, and the name of Senator Abdulfatai Omotayo Buhari is a recurring decimal. Pressure groups from the area have outrightly dismissed the prospects of accepting the position of Deputy Governor or Speaker of the State House of Assembly. They allude to the monopoly of the Oyo governorship by Ibadanland for a whopping 26 years, to the total exclusion of other critical sections of the state. For his gleaming track record, for his proven good works, Fatai Buhari continues to feature in conversations and narratives.
There is a general consensus that Seyi Makinde has done very well as Governor of the “pacesetter state” since 2019. He rates very highly in infrastructural development and the opening up of the state to agriculture and agro-allied industries. He has equally demonstrated foresight by redeveloping the Ibadan Airport (now Samuel Ladoke Akintola International Airport, SLAIA), into an international project. It is today a potential backup for Nigeria’s foremost international aviation hub, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). Irrespective of political party affiliations, if there is one individual with the requisite education, rounded exposure, and robust experience to take Oyo State to the next level, Senator Abdulfatai Omotayo Buhari appropriately fits the bill. If he has done so much without executive powers, he will do even better when vested with the responsibility. And it behoves the good people of the state to rally behind him all the way.
Olusunle, PhD, Fellow, Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
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