Shared Progress: The Incomparable Legacy Of Senator Fatai Buhari | Muftau Gbadegesin
For most of us, the idea that a politician can truly care about his people, regardless of their history or heritage, affiliation or inclination, sounds particularly radical, yet Senator Fatai Buhari has consistently and practically done so over the last ten years as the people’s representative. Of course, many years of failed promises have left us bitter, cynical, and disappointed.
The evidence of that bitterness, cynicism and disappointment in the system and in our elected representatives, for instance is everywhere: in classrooms that leak, roads that are traps, power that flickers and hospitals that lack basics. To many, all politicians are the same and nothing they do ultimately matters.
But one man is flipping that script with excellent performance. Not only as a lawmaker extraordinaire or an astute grassroots mobiliser but also as an unrepentant believer in his people’s potential and an unapologetic marketer of their uniqueness. For one thing, that man is rewriting his story from good to great, building his legacy brick by brick in a way that lasts and stands the test of time.
As a man of few words, Senator Fatai Buhari has delivered democratic dividends with measurable impacts. He is capping it all with legacy projects that will endure for generations to come. Whether in the hinterland or in the inner chamber of power, Senator Buhari’s humility, simplicity, and quick wit have gotten more things done than all his predecessors combined. That Nigeria struggles with the right kind of leader is partly because the likes of Senator Buhari are in short supply: a simple, accessible, present, adaptive, and proactive leader who says what he means and means what he says.
Chinua Achebe, the late literary giant, aptly captured this leadership debacle in his thought-provoking treatise, The Problem with Nigeria. In the tome, Achebe argued, with moral clarity and intellectual erudition, that the problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely that of a leadership challenge. Over the years, Nigeria has buckled under the yoke of incompetence and ineptitude. But nowhere is that incompetence more visible than in Oyo North Senatorial District, where the quest for federal government presence has pulsated for years. For far too long, the region has endured brutal years of deliberate marginalisation and neglect. All that ended the moment President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assented to the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology (FUNATO) bill sponsored by Senator Fatai Buhari, PhD.
But that wasn’t all. It seems, without any doubt, that another federal project is about to land in the region, this time, with healthcare in focus. Only a few leaders demonstrate unbridled passion in matters that concern their people, particularly when they have the audience of the President, who, in the grand scheme of things, has the power to assent to bills and make things happen in real life.
That a politician could walk into the seat of power, sit with the president, look him in the eyes, and tell him, ‘My requests are only about my people.’ “My first request is to secure the Presidential assent to the Federal Medical Center, Igboho Bill as part of efforts to deepen democratic dividends and essentially to galvanise people’s support in the next general election,” he noted in his transcript of the meeting.
That was last week Friday, 16th October, 2026, a day that started ordinarily but unfolded to warm the hearts of the people Igboho in particular and some-Ogun in general. By evening, when most of the day’s work had been done, the news circle in the state had gone into overdrive: the most senior senator from the South West in the 10th Assembly has held a strategic closed-door meeting with the President. In an instant, speculation about what could possibly be at the centre of their meeting became a topic of discussion.
That Senator Buhari AbdulFatai, PhD, met with the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, alongside the Executive Chairman, Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, caught many in the state off guard. For more than 48 hours, no one could hazard a guess at the outcome of the meeting. But on the evening of Monday, 19th October, 2026, Senator Buhari shared the content of his meeting with the President on national television. In the 30-minute prime-time interview, Senator Buhari stated that his discussion with the president only focused on people and politics.
In all his time in politics, Senator Fatai Buhari has fought to see classrooms rebuilt, roads reconstructed, hospitals equipped, power restored, and jobs facilitated. He has brought smiles to the faces of his people through projects that touched their lives. No doubt, people have always been at the heart of his politics: the moment politics lack the human face, it ceases to be about the people, he seems to believe. To his credit, the once neglected and forgotten region is now at the heart of discussion not only in Ibadan, where the government of the day has politicised and polarised everything, but in Abuja, where decisions that shape the future of the nation are being made.
To his credit, Oke-Ogun no longer plays the catch-up game in the grand scheme of things; rather, it has become the newest political bride that is being courted by parties and politicians. Once a region that whispers its aspirations and agitations, Senator Fatai Buhari has handed over a new blueprint for a region that has so much to offer but often gets sandbagged by divisive politics. “If you can speak with one voice”, the senator seems to be telling the people, “you will reap so much in abundance not only for today but for generations to come.”
For all the projects and programs, Senator Fatai Buhari’s most remarkable and enduring legacy might not even be in the bills he sponsored, laws that he initiated or oversight he carried out.
Perhaps, his biggest accomplishment as a leader might be in the way he has renewed people’s hope: that it is possible to get things done with simplicity and humility.
