To the Strongest: Buhari’s political void
Death is inevitable, and the unfortunate thing is that we cannot choose when to be born or when to depart from this life. President Muhammadu Buhari was a beacon in every sense. He is one of the top two people who ruled Nigeria the longest, just after Obasanjo. Some of us who criticised him when […]
Death is inevitable, and the unfortunate thing is that we cannot choose when to be born or when to depart from this life.
President Muhammadu Buhari was a beacon in every sense. He is one of the top two people who ruled Nigeria the longest, just after Obasanjo. Some of us who criticised him when he was in power understood he was like every human; he made mistakes. And in all honesty, I was touched to see his video again where he was asking for forgiveness before he stepped down. We forgive him and pray that his good deeds follow him.
It is fair to say that, like many generational politicians, Buhari commanded a cult-like following. His supporters do not weigh his record; they defend him out of loyalty. In their eyes, he is beyond reproach. His silences are read as wisdom. His failures are blamed on others. Like religious zeal, their devotion is deep, irrational, and enduring.
However, unlike other politicians with stronger links to the establishment, Buhari’s special brand of followers are the Northern masses—the dominant voting bloc. They see him as the only person who has “integrity”, “mai-gaskiya”, incorruptible and someone who is anti-establishment. It is also true that the clerics and musicians played a significant role in positioning him as such. He was made to look like the only person who could solve the problems of the ordinary people. And when things fell apart, they took the responsibility to explain away such shortcomings.
Therefore, it goes without saying that until his death, he was the most formidable politician in the eyes of the Northern voters. His political endorsement can earn you the presidency, as we saw with Tinubu under the Muslim-Muslim ticket—his last political act.
I still recall when Buhari’s political wave started around 23 years ago. He contested for President under the APP ticket in the 2003 general elections. And since then, he has been the only politician who has maintained his popularity and the sizable number of votes despite switching political parties four times: APP in 2003, ANPP in 2007, CPC in 2011, and APC in 2015. And he was re-elected in 2019 with the same party. Notwithstanding, each election he contested came with its court controversies, except in 2015.
Unknown politicians, accidental contestants and weakly positioned candidates won their seats because they ran under Buhari’s party. Governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, and state assembly members remain thankful to Buhari. Most will confess they got into power simply due to their party affiliation with Buhari, nothing more. Those who fell victim due to Buhari’s popularity blamed the people for being uniform in voting for “sak”, which he later translated as “from top to bottom”.
In 2003, Governors like Shekarau in Kano took the state by storm with the Buhari wave under APP. They used the Hausa slogan “a kada, a raka, a tsare”, which translates to “protect your vote”. Similarly, it was the wave of Buhari, not the drive to implement Shariah, that kept the governors of Sokoto, Borno, Kebbi, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara in power under the APP. That was when the PDP was sweeping all the South West states except Lagos, where the AD party dominated in 1999.
The same feat was repeated in 2007 with the Bauchi Governor—Isa Yuguda—under a new party, the ANPP. And even when he broke away from the ANPP to form his CPC, in 2011, Al-Makura of Nasarawa State managed to win against an incumbent governor under the influence of Buhari. Many would argue that the Muslim-Muslim was only influential because Buhari endorsed it. And people would have voted for Tinubu without inducements; spaghetti, noodles, and rice were just bonuses.
Buhari made one political mistake. Or to put it bluntly, the administrators of the Buhari administration committed the most shortsighted atrocity by letting Tinubu succeed him. Yes, it was a collective decision, marked by internal conflict. But this is not the moment to unleash the shortcomings of the present administration. The reason for bringing this up is that until Buhari’s death, there was a strong impression that Buhari would play a role in unseating Tinubu, albeit indirectly and without his knowledge.
I say so, not because I am unaware of how carefully our late President might have behaved in such a situation. But there is a strong feeling that the opposition coalition will use Buhari’s city of residence—possibly Kaduna— as the rendezvous for plotting to unseat this administration. Such positioning will create the illusion that Buhari is endorsing every political decision taken by the players. We were already witnessing political figures making pilgrimages to his Kaduna residence following his shift from Daura. Even Atiku and other politicians saw it as a moral booster to announce their visits to Kaduna to their political base.
Unfortunately, Buhari has left us. And he left us with one big question: Who will fill the void he created? As President Obasanjo said, Buhari left us when the country needed him most. As it stands, politicians have no place to go on a political pilgrimage, except for those with exclusive access to Minna.
Based on his antecedents, President Buhari is cautious. If he were asked whom he should take over his support base, he would answer as Alexander the Great answered, “to the strongest.” I mean, the Buhari we know will not nominate a favourite. He would leave the choice to competition.
Many recognise this. His retirement was meant to be a political pause to find the next figure to fill the void. But it is hard to find someone like Buhari, especially one the northern people would describe with words such as “Mr Integrity” or “mai-gaskiya”.
A possible replacement could be an active opposition politician with a national spread who is willing to forgo his personal ambition to play a kingmaker. It would need exceptional discipline as resignation, of any sort, is not a common practice in Nigeria. Such a person would be revered to the point of making his home the latest political sanctuary with constant pilgrimages as 2027 nears. But in truth, this is just wishful thinking.