Nigeria's former president Buhari dead at 82

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari salutes during an inspection of guards on parade to mark Democracy Day in Abuja, on June 12, 2019. [AFP]

Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari -- who led his country first as a junta strongman and later as an elected democrat -- died Sunday at the age of 82, an aide said.

Buhari governed Nigeria with a strong hand as a military ruler in the 1980s before reinventing himself as a "converted democrat", serving two terms from 2015 to 2023.

"The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, this afternoon in a clinic in London," Garba Shehu, who served as Buhari's spokesman during his presidency, said in a post on social media.

Current President Bola Tinubu said in a statement that he had spoken with Buhari's widow and ordered Vice President Kashim Shettima to go to England to accompany Buhari's body back to Nigeria.

The rake-thin 82-year-old Muslim from Nigeria's far north made history as the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent leader at the ballot box in 2015.

His election victory in a country where re-election for the incumbent had been taken for granted was seen as a rare opportunity for Nigeria to change course.

But his time at the helm failed to halt the country's long-standing issues of graft and insecurity, while the oil giant was further dogged by economic woes.