Middle East & Africa | Baba go-slow to go-go

After eight dismal years, Nigeria prepares to replace President Buhari

His failure to bring peace or prosperity offers lessons for his successor

A picture taken on May 23, 2022, shows a bread vendor standing beside a campaign poster of presidential aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ahead of party primaries. - Tinubu, 70, may be confident of finally achieving his presidential ambition in the 2023 election, but he is just one in a packed field of high-profile potentials still scrambling for position. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP) (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images)
Image: AFP
|ABUJA AND KANO

“Buhari has given us very big wahala (trouble),” says Usama Sani, a student in Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria. “There is insecurity and unemployment,” he complains, before shouting: “We are going to kick Buhari aside!” President Muhammadu Buhari used to be popular in Kano; he won landslide support there in two presidential elections. Now, says another student, Umar Garba Umar, “we are so hungry for change.” Even members of Mr Buhari’s own All Progressives Congress (APC) are down on the outgoing president. Kashim Shettima, the APC’s vice-presidential candidate, concedes that Mr Buhari has done only “modestly well”.

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Buhari’s dismal legacy”

From the January 14th 2023 edition

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