By Shuaibu Gimi
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was essentially built around the personality of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari who, for obvious reasons, became the rallying point for most of the opposition forces at the time. All the proponents and later facilitators of the merger of the parties that produced the APC saw in Buhari, whom they carefully weighed, as the only political figure that could inspire the voters and subsequently win the election, both of which he effectively did.
Therefore, even with the visibility of the current President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and so many other heavy elements as co-drivers of the merger, the Buhari personality served as the biggest shoulder on which they all stood. The party’s strategies for campaign and other activities were, somehow, all designed to allow for his emergence as its presidential flagbearer because of the belief that he alone had the support base that was needed to unseat the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); a belief that the results of the election validated.
Late Buhari was to the APC what the famous Africanist-late Nelson Mandela-was to the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa; the party’s soul that is. In the North, from where the party pulled the votes that made it the winner, the late former president was a hero whom the bulk of the people almost worshipped and therefore a figure whose indispensability was fully unmistakable and also a contender who caused a kind of storm that translated into a victory for most candidates of the party.
Although as the journey progressed after he became president, certain signs of fatigue began to appear in the manner he handled party and state affairs, Buhari, up till his death, remained the strongest pillar upon which the APC rested. Even those who, either as party members, opposition elements or non-partisan Nigerians, happened to be contemptuous of his styles reckoned with the fact that he was just unbeatable in terms of popularity among especially the northern masses.
His death on Sunday 13th July 2025 in a London clinic must have, therefore, created an unbelievably huge vacuum that can hardly be filled. APC without Buhari will definitely be a lot more vulnerable to all the hazards associated with electoral contests, which means that it is now more exposed to the challenges of survival as a ruling party.
As it is now, APC must have to develop more capacity than it possesses to enable it make up for the absence of the late president especially considering the thickening threat to it as evident in the coalition that has already been formed by the opposition forces. Even with the incumbency and the huge resources at its disposal, the party and the government it controls need to make fundamental adjustments as a strategy for the sustenance of the advantages that it has been enjoying since 2015 when it took over power and which can now however not be guaranteed because Buhari is no longer available.
Both the APC leadership and President Tinubu must have to come to terms with the reality of the Buhari’s absence and consequently take extra steps to keep the party intact. All the grievances being expressed by, for example, the core loyalists of the late former president or, more precisely, members of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc in the APC over real or perceived marginalisation need to be addressed for the party to be stable and strong enough for the battle ahead.
Alhaji Gimi writes from Kaduna, and can be reached on shuaibugimi1966@gmail.com
