We Have Not Forgotten: The Day Buhari Faced Fire in Kaduna

 

By Oriontimes Editorial Board | October 4, 2025

Eleven years ago, on a hot afternoon in Kaduna, Nigeria stood still. A deafening explosion ripped through the convoy of General Muhammadu Buhari,

then a former Head of State and leading opposition figure. It was July 23, 2014. the day fire met iron. The attack, allegedly carried out by Boko Haram insurgents, was intended to silence one of the strongest voices against the insecurity plaguing the nation. Yet, miraculously, Buhari survived.

“I didn’t know how I came out alive,” he said afterwards, his words heavy with disbelief and gratitude. The bomb had torn through vehicles in his convoy, killing innocent bystanders and aides. But somehow, the General emerged from the wreckage - dazed, unhurt, and alive. His survival was quickly branded divine intervention, a moment that transformed him from a target of terror into a symbol of destiny.

But as the smoke cleared and the years rolled by, Nigeria’s insecurities only deepened. The same forces that sought Buhari’s life in 2014 spread across the land like wildfire, kidnapping, banditry, and bloodshed becoming routine headlines. For many Nigerians, that Kaduna blast is no longer a memory of survival; it is a haunting reminder of how little has changed.

We have not forgotten because memory is duty. We remember the shock of that day not just to glorify survival, but to confront the reality that the nation still bleeds from the same wound. The attack that missed Buhari was a warning shot at Nigeria’s conscience, a call to end the cycles of fear, poverty, and failed promises that feed

 extremism.