Born in Kano into a ruling-class religious family, Murtala served in the Nigerian Army as a cadet in the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

His career redoubled after Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and the young majors orchestrated the first military coup in Nigeria of 1966 empowering him to lead the mutiny of the night of 29 July 1966 in Abeokuta.

In post-civil-war Nigeria, Murtala ruled with more power than any Nigerian leader before or since and developed a charismatic authority and cult of personality.

At the same time, his regime transitioned from being authoritarian into consensus decision-making with Murtala the leader of a military triumvirate, alongside Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma.

His reign was marked by both brutal repression, and economic prosperity, which greatly improved the quality of life in Nigeria.

He died in 1953,[10] his mother, Uwani Rahamatu, was from the Kanuri and Fulani Jobawa clan, the Jobawa clan members include the Makama of Kano and Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila,[11] his maternal grandfather Yakubu Soja a World War I veteran was from Dawakin Tofa while his maternal grandmother Hajiya Hauwau (Aya) was from Gezawa, he was educated at Cikin Gida Elementary School which was inside the emir's palace.

[17] That year he traveled to the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick Garrison, England for a course on advanced telecommunications techniques.

In November 1965, he was made acting Chief of Signals of the Army, while his paternal uncle, Inuwa Wada had recently been appointed Defense Minister.

[15] In April 1966, Muhammed was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was the inspector of signals[16] posted to Army Headquarters, Lagos in a move that was partly to pacify Northerners weary about the new military regime.

Aguiyi-Ironsi, as GOC of the Nigerian Army, brought normalcy back to the nation by imprisoning the coup makers and intimidating the federal cabinet into handing over the helms of government to him.

In a book published in 2017, S. Elizabeth Bird and Fraser Ottanelli document the 1967 mass murder of civilians by troops of the 2 Division under General Muhammed's command.

[20] Between 1970 and 1971, he attended the Joint Service Staff College in England, his supervisor's report attributed him to having ''a quick agile mind, considerable ability and common sense.

[23] After the war and after he took power as head of state, Muhammed started the reorganization and demobilization of 100,000 troops from the armed forces.

[24] On 29 July 1975, General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown while attending the 12th summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Kampala, Uganda.

[26] In a short time, Murtala Muhammed's policies won him broad popular support, and his decisiveness elevated him to the status of a folk hero.

[28] Over 10,000 civil servants, government employees were dismissed without benefits; reasons stated were age, health, incompetence, or malpractice.

As head of state, Muhammed put in place plans to build a new Federal Capital Territory due to Lagos being overcrowded.

He set up a panel headed by Justice Akinola Aguda, which chose the Abuja area as the new capital ahead of other proposed locations.

However, because of the drastic nature of the purge, allegations that malice and revenge was used by heads of department in recommending people for retrenchment surfaced, and little was done to scrutinize the details and reasons staff were disengaged.

[15] As head of state Murtala Muhammed inherited an immense amount of oil and petroleum resources and enormous but untapped natural gas reserves.

But in 1975, Muhammed saw reduced revenue due to low levels of petroleum production; this meant that the military government lacked the projected funds to meet Nigeria's development plan for 1975.

Shortly after 8 a.m., his Mercedes-Benz car travelled slowly in the infamous Lagos traffic near the Federal Secretariat at Ikoyi in Lagos and a group of soldiers, members of an abortive coup led by Lt. Col. Bukar Suwa Dimka, emerged from an adjacent petrol station, ambushed the vehicle and assassinated Muhammed.

[33] Murtala Muhammed was killed, aged 37, along with his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa, in his black Mercedes Benz saloon car on 13 February 1976.