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Nigeria 2023: Who will take over Buhari’s vote bank in the Muslim areas of the north?

By Eniola Akinkuotu

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Posted on August 12, 2022 14:45

 © Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari delivers a speech during the Paris Peace Forum, in Paris, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari delivers a speech during the Paris Peace Forum, in Paris, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

For the first time in 20 years, President Muhammadu Buhari will not be on the ballot as Nigerians head to the polls to choose a new leader. Buhari, a retired general, has consistently been amassing huge votes in areas with large Muslim populations of the north even when he lost elections. With Buhari no longer qualified to contest having served two terms, who will take over his vote bank?

In 2003, Buhari ran for the presidency representing the now defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party. He ran against then president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was running for a second term. About 18 others – including Gani Fawehinm, a civil rights activist, and Emeka Ojukwu, the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra – were also on the ballot.

Although Buhari would eventually lose that election by polling about 32% of the total votes cast, the 12.7 million votes he amassed in the Muslim areas of the north were impressive for a new entrant in partisan politics. Buhari won elections in the 11 states that had, two years prior, adopted sharia law. These states include: Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe.

In 2007, Nigeria conducted one of its most controversial elections. International observers described it as a sham and the eventual winner, Umaru

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