What exactly is President Muhammadu Buhari’s real age?

Ever since he declared his intention to run for
president, Buhari’s personality has come under
close scrutiny. Just before the 2015 presidential
elections the opposition said he would not be able
to rule due to his age. But the president had
declared that his age will not affect his job as the
president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
READ ALSO: Buhari receives his classmates of
1953 set (photos)
Then at the age of 72, Buhari has the wisdom, the
patience, and the temperance that age brings and
has brought all these virtues to the presidency to
make a difference in our national life.
Now after a year in office it seems questions about
the President’s age won’t go away.
President Buhari is believed to be 73 years of age,
but recently, some news outlets reported that the
president received his 1953 classmates at the Aso
Rock Villa.
But this is 2016 and from 1953 to 2016 is
calculated as 63yrs. Those who have made it their
duty to calculate the president’s age are
questioning if Buhari was 10 years when he
attended secondary school as of then. They have
also asked if the president has been lying about his
real age.
Another awkward situation was on the eve of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s 73rd birthday,
when a former president of Nigeria, Olusegun
Obasanjo felicitated with him in what may be
described as a Freudian slip. Obasanjo allegedly
wished Buhari happy 78th birthday. This further
heightened the speculations surrounding President
Buhari’s real age.
Could it also have been that Obasanjo knows what
the average Nigerian does not know, or is it that
his memory is failing him?
Quite a number of Nigerians have their reservations
about Buhari because of his age, some think he’s
too old to be president. Supporters of the President
have defended him by saying it is better to have a
man without a certificate than have a doctorate
holder who is clueless.
Buhari’s academic qualification have also come
into focus. It was alleged that the president did not
sit for the Cambridge West African School
Certificate (WASC) in 1961 as he had earlier
claimed.
A High Court sitting in Abuja recently struck out a
suit challenging the veracity of the academic
credentials of President Buhari.
The court’s action effectively put to rest, the
controversy surrounding the secondary school
certificate of the president, which was a major
issue in the 2015 election campaigns.
READ ALSO: Federal High Court rules on Buhari’s
certificate saga
The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
used it as a weapon against Buhari and
approached the court to disqualify his candidacy.
The Army earlier stated that they could not trace
President Buhari’s certificate in their records
against the claims the he deposited it with the
institution.
However, after the release of the presidential
election results, the Army announced that it had
found the certificate.