Five years after that dark Friday evening in 2021, honest assessors of the country’s history still remember General Ibrahim Attahiru’s short tenure as COAS as pacesetting and effectual. Those who knew him personally testify that he was a man of firm discipline and extraordinary compassion. And through the enduring love of his family and the institutional triumphs of his Foundation, the late Kaduna State-born General, exemplary husband, father, and humanitarian, continues to serve the nation he loved.
Today, 21 May, 2026 marks exactly five years since an unprecedented tragedy in Nigeria’s history shook the nation to its core. On that day in 2021, the country’s 21st Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, died alongside ten other gallant officers and men in an air crash.
The incident that took Attahiru’s life occurred during a trip for the passing-out-parade of a new set of recruits at the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, scheduled for Saturday, 22 May, 2021. The depot is the institution that trains Nigeria’s army recruits, and although he didn’t need to be there, Attahiru argued that his physical presence would boost the morale of those new entrants before their deployment to the different formations of the Army where they would serve. So, on the preceding Friday, he boarded a military aircraft with some of his closest aides. Less than sixty minutes later, the aircraft encountered challenges that, though remain undefined till date, resulted in the death of everyone on board. The event shook the nation to its foundations.
