The Buhari I Knew: Kenny Martins’ Raw Account Of Integrity, Betrayal, And Survival In Nigeria’s Power Circles

Chief Kenny Martins has lived through the trenches of Nigeria’s turbulent political history, from military coups to democracy, from detention threats to salvation at the hands of unlikely allies. At the heart of his story is one man, General Muhammadu Buhari, who died on July 13 at a clinic in London. In an explosive narrative, Martins unveils the Buhari he knew: a disciplined, incorruptible leader who became tragically trapped within the walls of power.

He spoke about how Buhari was poisoned and his government hijacked by a cabal:

Here are excerpts from his recollections:

Buhari was a man on whom the whole nation pinned so much hope. That’s why his victory was total, massive, complete, and still holds the record for defeating an incumbent President.

Go and check all the governments. They either owe those who brought them there or those they are working with; people who wield so much leverage that a president may only be able to get about 30% of his intentions executed. Why? Because he becomes a captive of the system. Once appointed, he is locked within the four walls of the Villa. Every piece of information he gets, every interaction with the world, is filtered through the people surrounding him. Is it the phone? Is it the newspapers? Is it TV? These are the only channels he has to feel what is happening outside.

I believe the most versatile president Nigeria could have had was Babangida. I remember how, late at night around 11 p.m. or midnight, Babangida would head for Ilasa, driving in a convoy of two or three cars, to visit Chief Alex Akinyele, just to know what was happening in the world.

OBJ, too, was largely like that. But others allowed themselves to be locked in and captured by their close circle. Buhari was an unwilling victim of this capture because, frankly, he could not resist them.

Now, I’m not making excuses for Buhari or justifying whatever went wrong with his administration. I’m simply sharing the truth about the Buhari I knew, having engaged deeply with him on national issues. I have recounted these experiences in a book I have already completed and will publish at the right time.

I remember, during Abacha’s reign, after Buhari came out of detention, some of us were there to receive him. Buhari was extremely modest. I approached OBJ, who regarded Buhari almost like a son, and suggested he should host Buhari to a welcome-back party. OBJ initially dismissed the idea, but I insisted. Eventually, we hosted a small gathering at his farm. Buhari arrived, saw champagne on the table, and exclaimed, “Champagne? For me?” That was Buhari — humble to a fault.

Later, Buhari confided in me, saying OBJ was the only leader who trusted him implicitly when he served as Petroleum Minister. OBJ never asked him to account for anything, believing in his integrity. That was the military way – responsibility was delegated with absolute trust. Unfortunately, Buhari carried this same trust into civilian governance, assuming everyone would perform like military officers. That, I believe, was the root of his failings. Had Idiagbon, his deputy, been alive and served with him again, the story could have been quite different.

I vividly remember how reluctant Buhari was to accept Abacha’s offer to head the PTF. He considered the Abacha regime corrupt and wanted no part of it. I, alongside his brother Maman Daura, persuaded him. I told him, “Sir, you are a credible man. If you reject this appointment, Abacha will give it to one of his cronies, and the money will be looted. When you meet your Maker, how will you answer for the lives that could have been saved with that money?” That struck him. He accepted the job and, to his credit, ran the PTF with remarkable discipline and integrity.

He once explained his approach to me: “I prefer to give contractors 30% profit and collect 70% project value, rather than collect 30% value and let them pocket 70% in inflated costs.” He demanded bank guarantees before paying contractors. I adopted this model when I later ran the Police Foundation. Buhari’s method ensured that money worked for the Nigerian people.

Under the PTF, he transformed infrastructures at Tincan Island and Ijesha areas, which were notorious for flooding. He solved those problems practically overnight, proving what was possible when a leader was determined and disciplined.

There was flood from Ijesha, from Surulere, trying to go to the Lagoon by the National Theatre. So, it was slow over. It was a misconception of engineering for them not to have put a bridge there. He had to redesign it and put that road together, and that’s when the whole of Ijesha became habitable. Anybody who lived in Ijesha in those days will remember what they used to go through. It was like another Maroko, until Buhari’s intervention and the one at Kirikiri, that part of Tincan, which was always flooded for the same reason. That Coconut bus stop. Trailers would almost be submerged then, before he came in. He was the one who diverted the water from there, up to almost FESTAC, where you have that water going to that river, going to the lagoon. That’s the thorough Buhari that I know.

Let me now go personal. But for Buhari, I would be history by now. I’ll be dead. Because under the Abacha government, OBJ was arrested. I’d told him that he would be arrested, but he said it was impossible. He was arrested and detained, and then my friends in the media informed me about plans by the government of Abacha to assassinate me. I asked what I said and what I did. They said you don’t know.

I’m very fatalistic. I don’t have regard for death because I’ve probably died twice. If you kill me today, you are just helping me to go and rest. So, I didn’t bother, but they came and said, “Look, we are bothered if they come for you with a bullet, what if we are the unintended casualties. Since you have this firm belief that nothing can kill you. The state is planning to assassinate you, and you are nonchalant.” So, under that pressure, I went to Justice Maman Nasir, the man I called my Godfather. I said, Sir, people say the government of Abacha wants to kill me.

I went to meet him in Malumfashi, in Katsina. And he said, “They want to kill you? What is wrong with these people? These are the things we say about this government. Okay, do you know what you’ll do? You know Gen. Buhari very well. Yes, I know you are very close to him. Go to his house in Daura. You can’t miss it. Once you hit that road, it takes you straight to Daura. And I’ll call him before you get there. He’s at home now. He’ll be expecting you. Between us, we’ll work something out so that nothing happens to you and your good friends in the media. So, I went to Gen. Buhari. That’s when I knew his relationship with the Niger Republic. He said, if you cross that place, 15 minutes; that is the Niger Republic boundary. If you drive back now, and you come down that side, that is the Niger Republic. His house is always humble.

I told him why I was there. He said, ‘Really’. I say yes, Sir. He said, “These people; what’s wrong with them?” He said that he would call the Head of State and get back to me. Then, we didn’t have mobile phones as we have today, but the landline and fax were working very well. I had my line in the office and on my side of the bed at home.

Less than a week later, on a Sunday evening at about 11:00 PM, Gen. Buhari called me. He said Kenny, I just finished dinner with the Head of State, who is hearing me now because I’m using his phone. I’ve told him about what is supposed to happen to you, and he said not under his watch. Nothing like that would happen because I’ve told him that not only are you our son, but you are also our son in the North, and nothing must happen to you. Because there’s nothing you have done against this government. If anything, you have been trying your best to stabilize the government with all the suggestions going to all of us, which Abacha also knew.

Abacha knew me by the reputation of the suggestions I gave to his government, from Afenifere, from everybody, and the way I mounted pressure on him about the West and everybody coming back, and Abiola being released.

Gen. Buhari said that Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo, the NSA, would call me and come to see me in Lagos. He said that I should discuss with him, and he would make all the arrangements, give all the necessary assurance and nothing would happen to me. Lo and behold, that Monday at 9:00 AM, my secretary said someone was on the line, his name is Ismaila Gwarzo. I said, pass the call to me. I asked: How are you, Sir? He said, “Are you Kenny Martins, Sir? He assumed I was an old man. I said yes, Sir. I’m Kenny Martins.

He said, “Sir. I’ve been asked to see you by the Commander-in-Chief through the former Head of State – Gen. Buhari, through the President Court of Appeal, Alhaji Maman Nasir, and give you certain assurances that nothing will happen to you. I’m supposed to see you tomorrow. But unfortunately, I’m tied up with the villa. We have assignments until Friday. After that, I will surely come.”

I said no, Sir, you don’t have to come. I will come to the villa to see you. Why bother yourself? Is it not just to see me? Is that why you’re coming to Lagos?

He said, “No. Don’t tell me that. I’ve been asked to see you, and I’m coming to see you.”

I said you don’t have to come. He said, “Then, don’t put me in trouble. If you say I should not come, then you go and tell those people that you are the one who told me not to come and that you chose to come to the villa instead. I didn’t call you to come to Abuja.”

That was the weight of the instruction given to him. I said: Don’t worry. I will tell them. You’ll tell the General? I said I’ll tell him. You‘ll tell Justice? I said I’ll tell the justice. What about Mr. President? I said the general would tell the Head of State.

He said it was okay. So, I went to see him in his office at the villa. And I entered the NSO’s office. As I entered, I’m sure he must have been shocked.

He said, “Yes, can I help you?” I said yes, I’m Kenny Martins. I know why they would have wanted to kill me because I’m an Obasanjo man, who has also done all those political moves with OBJ, which was to unite Nigeria and bring the Afenifere and the West back into the transition. How it was misconstrued. That’s another story.

I said that I’m Obasanjo’s In-law. He said, “Oh, you are… I said yes. He said, “So what can I do for you? Sit down. I said there’s nothing you can do for me. They say your people want to kill me; your government wants to kill me. He asked: ‘How can you say so?’ We are not killers. I said I’m not saying you’re a killer, but they say your government wants to kill me. He said, ‘That’s a serious allegation.’ I said it’s not an allegation, sir, and it’s a reality that we must address. I don’t even worry about dying because death means nothing to me. He said, ‘You don’t fear death’. I said I don’t fear death. But my people, I’m worried for them, and they are worried for themselves. They may not have the confidence I have, and they may not have the luck that I always have or the blessings that I have. They may be the ones who’ll suffer the bullets. He said, “Okay. Sit down”. He pressed the button and picked up the phone. He said Peter, come here. By the side of his office, one yellow tall, handsome, gangling man, I know his name to be Peter Nwaduwa. He was the DG SSS. He walked in.

Before then, Alhaji Gwarzo interviewed me and said, “What do you do? I told him that I was into shipping, because I used to do shipping for NNPC for over 15 years. We shipped their refined products from Port Harcourt and Warri to Lagos, sometimes to the Caribbean with our tankers, our vessels, 30,000 toners, and then we do all of that. I said I also discussed how to make peace in Nigeria. I’ve met with elders to see how we can pull Nigeria back after this. I did so much on Abiola, but unfortunately, he didn’t get it, and now that’s breaking the country apart, which should not be the case. I’m always talking to the Government about how to put everybody back on the same platform and how to resolve the Abiola issue and then the Southwest issue, and the NADECO issue.

He said, ‘You, all of this’. I said yes. He asked, “Who and who did you discuss with at those meetings?” I told him, Chief Akinloye, Chief Akinjide, Alhaji Arisekola, Chief Asiodu; all of them. He said, ‘Okay, I should hold on.’ He asked Peter Nwaduwa to come in. He said, “Do you know Kenny Martins?” The man gave him the whole history of my life in less than five minutes. He said, “You mean this is who you are. All of this. And, you say that you have done nothing. I said, “Is that why I should be killed, Sir? He said, “No, no, no, I didn’t give a reason anybody should kill you. Peter, I’m handing over Kenny to you. Nothing should happen to him. I’m giving you the message of the C-in-C., the message of Gen. Buhari, former Head of State, and the message of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Maman Nasir, the Galadinma. Nothing must happen to Kenny Martins.”

That saved my life, because from that moment I became almost a property of security, nothing must happen to me. They have asked what I do politically. I mentioned what later became NCPN. I said I was the one who called the Nation Builders Congress, an association to unify Nigeria after all these cut-offs for SDP, NRC. Anywhere the police stop vehicles, stop and search, and they see anybody with any of our NBC books or pamphlets and things, they will salute them, saying you are Kenny Martins’ people. We have instructions to take care of you, just go. In any corner of Nigeria, the instruction was that nothing must happen to me. Even police officers at checkpoints used to say so to my people, who would then tell me. Nothing happened to me.

I was saved by the moves of General Buhari and Justice Nasir. Two weeks later, my closest political partner was assassinated. Unbeknownst to me, when I was with Gwarzo, he was already earmarked for the same bullet as me. She was the one who took my bullets. The boys in black went to her house in Ibadan and shot her dead.

Alhaja Suliat Adedeji, the Ibadan politician, was my closest ally. We were always in the plane together, at political meetings together, putting all these things together. And it is still the saddest moment in my life, because if I had known her name was on the list the way the media people told me, I would have told them that day. Her name most probably would have been put on the list of those whom nothing should happen to. I remain so sad that we lost that woman. I know other people died too in that Abacha dispensation.

Even when I was detained by Col. Frank Omenka, Buhari got me released. I remember Omenka’s amazement when orders came from above to set me free – the influence of Buhari was undeniable.

I was invited one day for no reason, probably because of OBJ things. Omenka said he would detain me. I said you can’t detain me.

He asked why. I said that because you are working for the government. Me too, I’m helping this government to succeed. So, I’m also a government stakeholder. The President knows me, knows that I’m always canvassing for how we can unite this country. General Diya, Number 2, knows me. Everybody in government knows. And I’m saying that there must be a way the Yorubas must be assuaged and the East brought back. All of them were holding those meetings with me; they must all be brought together because they are angry about this annulment. I said you can’t detain me, but he ordered that I should be detained.

And when he did, somehow, I was able to reach the General, the Justice, and one or two people. You know that Omenka, having detained me on a Thursday, and on Friday, calls started coming to him. He switched off his phone and went to the beach somewhere. But, according to him, later Sunday afternoon, when he came back, he said, “Come, come, I’ve been ordered to release you.”

I was detained at Omenka’s military intelligence base in Apapa. That notorious place. That was where I saw Senator Durojaiye. The entire world had been looking for him.

One day, I was passing by the window, and somebody said. Kenny, Kenny, Kenny, and I picked him. I said, “So, this is where you are. We have been looking; the entire world is looking for you.” He said, “This is where I am. Tell everybody this is where I am.”

I was able to come out and shout that the man was there. And he was later released.

So, Omenka came back from the beach. He said that they should go and bring me from the cell. He said, “Do you know what? You’re going home, Kenny Martins. I’ve been instructed to… I left my house. I left the beach. I switched off my phone. But somehow, they got me and ordered me to come and release you…”

I said I told you before that you cannot detain me, that same government you are working for, I might not be working for them, but I’m assisting them, collaborating with them to make the country better.

So, he told me to go home. No bail. Nothing. The following Monday, I was in my hotel, Nicon Noga, in Abuja, and they said somebody wanted to see me downstairs. I said: Tell the person to come to my room now. He said no, no, no, Sir. You must come down and see this person. He can’t come up. I say, what do you mean? I can’t come down. He said you must come. Please, otherwise we’ll lose our jobs. I said okay, let me come down so you don’t lose your job. I went down. Lo and behold, it is Omenka, his Brazilian wife, and his half-caste son with beautiful hair like this. Handsome boy. I asked, “What are you doing here? He said, “Look, I’ve been ordered to go and reconcile with you. Let’s go for lunch. He came on behalf of Gen. Buhari. So not only was my life saved, but I was also saved from detention at a point in time. That is the Buhari that I know.

Buhari would leave his house in Daura and go and sit down with the Head of State. Unbeknownst to me, much later, when it was time to do transition, it was Alhaji Gwarzo in the Villa who told me then and said that do you know that General Buhari told the president when he came to talk about the matter that not only should you be spared, you must be given a party because you are a politician that they trust and they hold dear. And the Head of State replied, and said General, you are talking politics. You don’t mention anything about politics. He said, “No. For Kenny, I will talk about anything. I’ll talk about politics.”

That’s how I became the first person to be given a party by the Abacha government. We became the National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN). The biggest party that fought Abacha to the ground. And let me say this one, I could not have said it when he was alive. But I can say it now. Nation Builders Congress was what we were doing then, which became NCPN. I, Etiebet, Paul Unongo, and the rest of them were the ones there at that time, including so many of us. We had the biggest party. Anyway. We won most local governments in the local government elections. We won 600-plus local governments. They took it all from us because we were considered anti-Abacha and gave it to UNCP.

That was the beginning of the distortion of Abacha’s transition that led to his government’s fall. So, when they tell me that people who were fighting for democracy, the real warriors of democracy, were those of us who stayed to fight Abacha, toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, without running away. And what I’m saying now is what emboldened us.

It was General Buhari and Justice Nasir who told me that I should keep on doing that thing, that political program that was uniting Nigeria, and that I should turn it into a political party. I say, ah! Where do I find the money? He said, “Don’t worry, we’ll find the money.” Who will give me political approval? He said, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get it.” And I say, you know why Abacha wants to succeed himself, and we must ensure that there’s democracy. General Buhari and Justice Maman Nasir told me this earlier in that government. I was spending everything and reaching everywhere I could reach to put together that political party, the NCPN, that finally was the undoing of Abacha’s plan to succeed himself. We were the ones who undermined him, because we won all the elections under him. I remember Alhaji Atiku left. He handed over his machinery to me. Chief Osoba couldn’t take part, but he handed over his machinery to me. That’s why we won in every corner of the federation.

The whole of the northeast, through Atiku, had gone into exile. We won because they came to call him and wanted to force him. He said, “Look, I’d rather leave the country than join these people.” And he left. Ditto so many of them. So, they gave me their whole machinery across the country. It was the most formidable party, a private party, which fought Abacha.

Well, let’s take it forward a bit. So, democracy finally came. OBJ became president. And civilians took over. Somehow, there were fundamental issues, the non-emergence of Chief Awoniyi as the party chairman against the trend and the wish of the people. And the non-emergence of Senator Okadigbo as Senate President, as against the wish of the people. Senator Enwerem was made, and I told OBJ that the way we are going, and all this forceful robbing of the people of their choice. This party will die one day. And this democracy, if we are not careful, will also die. For me, I don’t think I want to do PDP or politics with all of you anymore, because there are too many of these impositions. I want to go and form my party. OBJ laughed; how can you go and form a party? Which party? Are you going to AD? I said I can’t go to AD. So, you’re going to APP. I said no. So, apart from PDP, where are you going? I said I wanted to form a brand-new party.

That was the beginning of my 18 months of battle, legally coordinating all the strongest politicians in Nigeria, from radicals like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the Kaduna State governor who was impeached and returned. All of them. Afenifere. I arranged a meeting between Afenifere, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, Afenifere, Yorubas crossed the Niger River, and went for a meeting in the North. It didn’t happen under Awolowo. They were led by Baba Abraham Adesanya, whom I also got involved in the need to form a new party. And I remember that Senator Dafinone was there, Baba Adesanya was there with his complement of the whole Afenifere. Their secretary, lawyer Opadokun, and all of them. Everybody was there, who was somebody in Afenifere. I housed them at the CBN quarters while the federal government was looking to stop the meeting, looking for them in the hotels. Not knowing that Senator Dafinone has used his influence to house everybody in the CBN quarters under their nose. We held the meeting in Arewa House, which had never happened before. Afenifere in Arewa House?

Do you know who we went to the night before the meeting to come and chair it? It was General Buhari. I said, sir, the biggest meeting ever in the history of Nigeria is being held tomorrow. The six zones are represented: Niger Delta, this, that, southwest, Baba Adesanya, the North Central, Paul Unongo, Northwest, northeast, and all of us were there. Justice Nasir was there.

So, Sir, you are the only one with the clout and the size to come and chair the meeting. He said, “You know I’m not a politician.” I said don’t say so, because along the line you advised me when I was consulting with you about what I was doing, even with Gen. Babangida about the need to form a new party and allow more parties to be formed so that Nigeria can be Nigerians and Nigeria can be able to have alternative platforms on which we politically relate, and not be conscripted to those three parties. So, we held the meeting in Kaduna – Arewa House.

The military and SSS were running through Abuja Roads, not knowing that we were already there the night before. So, he agreed. He was the chairman of the meeting that gave birth to all these parties we have today. So, I heard people saying that they are the father of this, the father of that, you know, the father of the political parties didn’t even claim this. People like General Buhari himself, people like me. They’re fathers of PDP? Gen. Babangida and the rest don’t talk. They don’t even know when these parties were put together, what effort it took us to fight that battle with the federal government, with the government of President Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku. This man is talking now, El Rufai and all. We fought them to a standstill. It was at the court that the situation became so heated that even the whole country was concerned about the potential problems if those parties were not registered. This was because the six people from those zones had made a covenant and issued a pronouncement stating that they wanted to form their parties.

And that is the wish, because by the Constitution, my driver and I can form a party. So that’s why the federal government gave in under President Obasanjo, and all of them have had cause to use one form of those parties and the others to relate. So, they registered 30 parties for us then. We took them to court; they bailed us out of court and gave those parties to us. Again, the hand of General Buhari was in the advent of this full-blown democratic space that we have. I have things to say along those lines. The things that he has done. And what? And, his humility is the untouchable one. And his frugality is something else.

As the Chairman of PTF, he was out of the country for approximately three to four weeks. Somehow, some contractors went and changed the terrazzo or tile in his house to full-blown granite in Kaduna. Then he came and opened his door and saw granite. He said, “What, who did this? He said that he would not come into the House until they removed that thing. It took a lot of placations for him to agree that the thing should stay and go to his house. When you go visiting, I don’t want to say the kind of things he does in his house, using his hand to carry shoes.

That’s Gen. Buhari for you. We have both wept and shed blood for Nigeria together. I had seen him shed tears and shed blood for Nigeria. I will say the day Gen. Buhari came to power, for the first time in my life, I wept, wondering how a good man could ever come to power, who doesn’t have money. Who is not corrupt? But unfortunately, thereafter, he got poisoned, and the government lost its bearings. The Cabal took over. They formed the cabinet behind him.

And, I remember in the latter days of his government, he found many of these falsifications. Who signed all these things for these people? Nobody is going to implicate me. They can sign whatever they want in my name. That’s their headache.

I’m not saying the insecurity things didn’t happen. People know better who was causing insecurity and those who imported insecurity to Nigeria. That’s not for us to say here now. History and time will tell us the reality. That is the Buhari that I know, that most people don’t know. I could say more things. That day, I went to see him in the villa with six people. With six different destiny-changing projects for Nigeria, he took everybody up one by one and, on the spot, approved the six projects. If his lieutenants had allowed those in the exco, especially the red cap Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Nigeria would have been a better place today, akin to Dubai, but no, they will kill it. They would damn you; they would not listen to you.

I’m not making a case for him. And many of them today who are condemning him are the ones who are guilty of these crimes? I’m not absorbing him. I’m just talking about Buhari that I know. He has come; he has done his own. He has done his time. Whatever it is, where he is now, it is between him and God. And for me? My condolences to the family, to the nation. The nation lost a man who was also positively motivated. If, for whatever reason, circumstances and those surrounding him, the cabal derailed what I used to know was his dream for Nigeria. And because of his incapacity, physically and mentally, to cope. There was not much he could do about it.

He was more of a captive president for most of the time he spent there. It was unfortunate. I will not name or attribute blame to anybody. I know that God is looking out for Nigeria, and I still believe that Nigeria will work. Those projects he approved at the time. And I’m glad about President Tinubu’s approvals. As a result, these projects are ongoing, and they are life-changing for this nation. We are positive that they will all see the light of day and Nigeria will be better for it.

When I talk about Buhari. I’m referring to his character, his mindset, his dreams, and his hopes for Nigeria.