With the passing of Muhammadu Buhari, the North, long considered a political powerhouse, now faces an unprecedented vacuum. For decades, Northern Nigeria stood as a formidable force, an imposing demographic bloc whose sheer numbers shaped electoral outcomes and exerted influence across the national structure. Minority ethnic groups often viewed the North as a coordinated powerhouse capable of determining the political destinies of the country. Buhari’s emergence as a unifying figure amplified this dominance, transforming the region into a solid political fortress anchored around his personality.
Muhammadu Buhari’s place in Nigeria’s political evolution cannot be adequately captured merely by recounting his time as a military ruler or his two-term presidency. His influence rested on symbolism, perception, and emotional legitimacy rather than traditional metrics of governance or policy delivery. For millions of northern Nigerians, Buhari embodied trust, simplicity, moral discipline, and cultural identity. It was therefore almost natural for the people to surrender the informal leadership of the entire region to him.
Today, however, with the former president’s passing, the North stands at a crossroads. The emotional kingship Buhari held remains vacant, and the people who once rallied behind his name have not found a figure worthy of inheriting his symbolic authority. The region has lost its political balance. Until a northern leader emerges with Buhari’s simplicity, integrity narrative, humility, and mass emotional chemistry, the North will continue to operate under a leadership vacuum that undermines its once unshakable political weight.
I had the opportunity to relate closely with the late President Buhari, and I can state with conviction that he was a remarkably simple man who commanded unsolicited mass support from the downtrodden. Buhari enjoyed a level of loyalty unmatched by any northern politician in the Fourth Republic. Even in the elections he lost between 2003 and 2011, the numbers he amassed from the North were staggering. His supporters did not stand with him because of political calculations or transactional expectations, they supported him because of what he represented. In a region where poverty is widespread and modern politics often feels distant from the struggles of daily life, Buhari was a rare figure who seemed to speak for the masses rather than at them.
Yet, Buhari’s moral narrative after his administration ended appears more a matter of perception than fact, especially in light of reports of alleged corruption under his watch. While these reports may have influenced how the elite evaluate his tenure, the downtrodden masses remain largely unmoved. They still see him as a leader whose lifestyle resonated with their yearning for a man untainted by the excesses of power. His life story, simplicity, and image of incorruptibility remain solid even in death, because the people feel a deeper emotional connection to who Buhari was rather than to the policy outcomes recorded under his presidency.
For the first time in decades, Northern Nigeria finds itself without a figure who commands universal respect, emotional loyalty, and symbolic authority across its diverse sociopolitical blocs, a leader who can provide clear political direction. While northern politicians of stature exist today, none has stepped into the symbolic void he left behind. The mantle he carried remains conspicuously unattained.
Leaders such as Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Nasir El-Rufai, Aminu Tambuwal, and Abdullahi Ganduje wield influence in their respective spheres, yet none possesses the essence required to inherit Buhari’s mantle. Atiku has national visibility and political sophistication, but an elite aura surrounds him, alienating the grassroots who cherished Buhari’s frugality. Kwankwaso has built the energetic Kwankwasiyya movement, but his influence is largely Kano-centric and deeply polarizing, his appeal is mobilizing rather than moral. El-Rufai, though intellectually formidable, is seen by many ordinary northerners as too technocratic, too elite, and too controversial to command emotional loyalty. Tambuwal is respected for his diplomacy but lacks the ideological depth or symbolic presence to inspire mass devotion. Ganduje may have political structure, but he lacks the moral aura and grassroots legitimacy that defined Buhari’s connection with the people.
The absence of a successor is not because these men are inherently flawed, but because Buhari’s influence was built on qualities that cannot be easily replicated. Buhari did not simply win elections, he won belief. He was not supported because he promised prosperity, but because he was seen as honest. In a society exhausted by corruption, honesty became the most valuable political currency. Buhari belonged to a generation whose moral narratives commanded natural respect, strengthened by public nostalgia for discipline and order.
Today’s northern political class operates in a more fragmented, digitally scrutinized, and identity-driven space. None possesses the moral mythos or emotional resonance to unify the region as Buhari did. What the northern masses miss in Buhari is not perfection, nor governance performance, but the sense that he was truly theirs. He spoke their language, embodied their values, and symbolized their collective identity. They supported him not through calculated logic but through instinctive belief that he represented something pure in a political system they had grown to distrust.
His death did not merely end a political chapter, it closed an entire era in northern political identity. The North, once a cohesive powerhouse under a single symbolic figure, now stands politically empty, its traditional stronghold fractured, its influence weakened, and its mantle of moral leadership unclaimed. Ahead of 2027, there is no northern leader capable of commanding the influence or determining the votes of the region anymore, the people will go to where they want.
Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq, is a Legal Practitioner and Senior Partner at Law Corridor.
