Post-Buhari Rumbles

President Buhari has gone the way of all mortals. Sai Baba is dead. Long live Mai Gaskiya! May Almighty Allah forgive him, accept his soul, and take care of those he left behind. Amen.

It’s been quite a while since Nigeria experienced the magic of a man of mass following and unmonetised adulation until General Muhammadu Buhari was conscripted to enter the fray. We used to have the Azikiwes, Ahmadu Bellos, Awolowos, Aminu Kanos in the first republic. But since the return to democracy in 1999, the single most vote-catching name was Muhammadu Buhari.

The history of his contribution to governance in Nigeria is already being written, whether we like it or not. It is impossible to miss the attempt by many otherwise insignificant entities to appropriate the Buhari brand as soon as they learnt that he had died. As hunters say in these parts, so many kinds of machetes show up after the death of an elephant.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, an astute political tactician in his own right, has already signalled his intention to contest the presidency through any compliant contraption. Having joined the grand coalition in the ADC and resigned from the PDP, he has set his formidable machine in motion. A couple of his close allies have followed his lead.

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State Funeral

The scramble to fly, drive, crawl, or possibly be teleported to Daura to be part of the historic photo-op at Buhari’s funeral was the number one priority of every notable politician. Eventually, the capacity of the Kaduna Airport was stretched. However, many prominent politicians were left out, among them Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who could only access the town to pay his respects on the day after the burial.

Watching the elaborate proceedings on TV gave one a bird’s eye view of everything, better than physically attending the event. You could see that the federal government had sewn up the official arrangements with the decision to give Buhari a full state burial — in which case, many of those who wanted to be seen as the inheritors of the Buhari political estate were shut out because they had no role to play. Vice President Shettima, who had been the federal government’s face in all matters concerning the funeral, even stayed back in Daura after the event.

Remember that those who want to be described as members of Buhari’s political family, as distinguished from other members of the APC, have been struggling of late to distance themselves from the Tinubu administration with the hope of inheriting Buhari’s famed 12 million captive votes in Northern Nigeria!

12 Million Votes

That calculation must have informed Boss Mustapha’s declaration during the launch of Garba Shehu’s book, “According To The President: Lessons From A Presidential Spokesman’s Experience”, to the effect that Buhari would have won the presidency without the collaboration of Tinubu’s ACN and others in 2015. That narrative was intended to signal a split between the CPC wing of APC (some of whose members have already joined the ADC coalition) and the rest of the founding parties making up the party.

The broad plan was to use Buhari’s persona as a bargaining chip with any new coalition of their choice. All those involved in this scheme are politically exposed persons who have used Buhari’s name in the last 12 years to put food on the table. Buhari’s death was not in their calculations at all, hence the failed attempt to play some sort of role at his funeral. A choreographed last photo-op would have come in handy in the political rumble-in-the-jungle ahead.

Now that Buhari is dead and the plan to excise his original CPC group from APC has all but failed — since they have had to join ADC as individuals, not as a faction of APC — the political orphans have begun to mass around former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Somehow, PDP elements have transferred their political virus to ADC. The political rivalry that tore PDP apart in the last election cycle is back in full force with Atiku, Peter Obi, and Rotimi Amaechi angling for the presidential ticket of ADC. Déjà vu?

Atiku hopes to wear the toga of the anointed Northern candidate now that Buhari is out of the picture. This is not unrealistic considering how ethnicity and religion come into play in the run-up to elections. The calculation is that voters in the North will vote for an Atiku any day rather than a Tinubu.

Those who subscribe to that calculation also reckon that when push comes to shove, they will find a way to persuade Obi to accept the vice presidential position so that they can benefit from Obi’s popularity in the Southeast. None of the permutations that have been filtered to me on this coalition has Obi as the presidential candidate. I think that is presumptuous!

Villagising Buhari

Meanwhile, some self-styled Buharists have been busy reinventing their link to Buhari and how they joined hands to form the CPC before the merger that brought forth the APC. One of the loudest of those voices is that of Engr. Buba Galadima who told the story of how he and other northern politicians went to recruit Buhari to join politics to checkmate the Oodua Peoples’ Congress and prevent the Yoruba people from retaking Ilorin from the North.

In this world of instant dissemination of information, there was an immediate media backlash in reaction to the revelation. Did Buhari enter politics to pursue an ethnic agenda? If that was true, why would he collaborate with the same Yoruba people to form a party and contest the 2015 presidential election? Or, does this disclosure explain Buhari’s perceived narrow-mindedness and alleged nepotism while in office?

I just hope that all these veteran political schemers regaling us with sensational stories about their relationship with Buhari don’t end up villagising the man that the federal government has just canonised as a nationalist, ‘Mr. Clean’ and a role model.

Netizens list several potholes that those involved in the ongoing political resurgence need to avoid if they must make a dent in the ballot returns. The lizard and the crocodile are different, they say. President Tinubu is not President Jonathan. Unlike Buhari, but like Atiku, Tinubu is a politician without a godfather and is self-financed. He won the 2023 APC primaries even when the incumbent president didn’t assist him. His political machine has made inroads into the Southeast and the south-south.  Between now and 2027, there are still thousands of appointments to be made and, predictably, those placements will be creatively made with electoral value in mind.

Grow Up!

To displace APC, the inheritor of the mantle must be a radically different entity. The only way any new party or political contraption can get the attention of Nigerians is to show that it is different in ideas and personnel. People want to know what your alternative to the removal of the fuel subsidy is. What is your comprehensive plan for electricity? Where will you get the money for infrastructure? How will you cut down government spending, and by how much, year on year? What are the details of your health, education, restructuring, and social service policies, and the source of funding for itemised programmes? Nobody will accept general manifestos anymore.

Those dragging Buhari’s name into their political drama should let the man rest. He is not here to defend himself. Grow up. Answer your father’s name!