Nigerian minister of Defence, General Aliyu Gusau has confirmed that he was a school mate of General Muhammadu Buhari who is currently the Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) for the February 14 election.
“You know that I’m not a politician but the truth needs to be told that I know Buhari since 1960. He passed through the school that I also attended. He sat for his Cambridge/ WASC examination and came out with Division 2. He then joined the Army, rose to become Major General and Head of State.”
General Gusau, who reacted today to the lingering controversies dogging the secondary school certificate of General Buhari when he spoke to newsmen, wondered why uptil now, the Old Students Association which was formed years ago had not come out to defend its member, in the person of General Buhari.
“We had just formed an association of old students of Katsina Provincial School, right from when it was a Middle School till date. And His Royal Highness, the Emir of Katsina, as an ex student of the school, invited some of us as the representatives of different sets, to his palace and we decided to even form a secretariat. I thought that the secretariat of our association should have clarified the status of Buhari’s certificates long before it took this dimension.”
General Gusau said that he met General Buhari in the Katsina Provincial Secondary School when he was enrolled into the School in January 1960, the year of independence.
“General Buhari, at that, was in form five. I stayed two years with General Buhari at the school. They passed out in 1961 and we passed out in 1964. Buhari had leadership qualities since secondary school; in form five, he was a House Prefect.
“Their set went up to form six but we were the first set that finished school at form five. Normally, out of those in form five, the school authorities used to pick House Prefects and when they get to form six, House Captains were chosen from those who were House Prefects. In Buhari’s case, he was a House Prefect in 1960 when we joined. By 1961, when he was in form six, he was chosen to be the Head Boy of the School.
“There were four Houses during our time in the school; Magaji House, Kaura House, Alkali House and Durbi House. Buhari was the House Prefect of Magaji House in 1960, Justice Umaru Abdullahi was the House Prefect of Alkali House, the late Mamman A Zango who became a policeman, was House Prefect of Kaura House while the late General Shehu Musa Yarádua was House Prefect of Durbi House. By 1961, all of them became the House Captains of their respective Houses but Buhari became the Head Boy.”