Africa in 2022

Nigeria 2023: Who will succeed President Buhari?

By Nicholas Norbrook

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Posted on January 26, 2022 11:07

President Buhari © Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari poses prior to celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris Friday Nov. 12, 2021. (Juilen de Rosa, Pool Photo via AP)/
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari poses prior to celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris Friday Nov. 12, 2021. (Juilen de Rosa, Pool Photo via AP)/

Welcome to the Muhammadu Buhari Succession Show! In it, an ageing patriarch sits atop a hard-fought electoral empire built up slowly over the course of many bruising campaigns. Which of his children will inherit?

We are breathing the last gasps of his second term in office; the old order is dying and the new cannot be born, with a multitude of morbid symptoms likely to emerge over the next 12 months in the run-up to the 2023 presidential poll.

So who will star as the rival children eager to inherit the formidable Buhari’s 12-million-strong vote bank in the north?

Various northern chieftains from both parties are hoping to emulate him, from former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and former speaker of the house of representatives Aminu Tambuwal of the opposition People’s Democratic Party to Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai.

Even former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) is reaching out to the north. He made sure that his 12th ‘Bola Tinubu Colloquium’ was held in Kano, and that everybody knew about it.

But, although he has announced his candidacy,

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