Lindsay-Barrett

President Muhammadu Buhari has recalled how consummate author, journalist, poet, essayist, photographer, and Pan-Africanist, Lindsay Barrett was nearly killed during the civil war.

Barrett who turned 80 on September 15, 2021 reported the Nigerian civil war as a journalist for some foreign publications.

In a birthday congratulatory message on Tuesday, President Buhari, who as a junior officer also fought in the Nigeria- Biafra civil war which spanned three years said he met Jamaica-born Barrett took on Nigerian citizenship in the 1980s at the war front in 1968, while he covered the Nigeria-Biafra War as a journalist.

“I remember the day he was almost killed in an ambush. He survived by a stroke of luck. I wish him well as he turns the milestone age of 80,” President Buhari says.

The President also saluted the about six-decade commitment to creative writing and journalism put in by Barrett, urging the younger generation to learn from his doggedness to his craft.

The President extended his felicitations to the Barrett family, the media, and the pen fraternity at large, wishing the celebrated writer longer life and good health.