Buhari ruled Nigeria first as a military Head-of-State from January, 1984 to August, 1985. He was heavily criticized for human rights abuses and draconian laws. His government however, struggled to salvage the poor economy inherited from the civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari.
Buhari contested election as presidential candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples' Party, ANPP, in 2003 against the spirit of power rotation that ushered in Nigerian Fourth Republic in 1999. He failed against incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo, his former Commander-in-Chief and a fellow retired general. He contested under the same party again in 2007 and lost to Umar Musa Yar'adua, the younger brother of his late comrade-in-arms and fellow coup expert, Shehu Musa Yar'adua.
Buhari formed his own party the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, on which ticket he contested in 2011. He again lost to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. A political merger mainly with the Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and ANPP and splinter groups of PDP and APGA saw Buhari winning the election in 2015.
He was rumoured dead severally after protracted treatments abroad for illness shrouded in secrecy.
A man who donned the toga of personal honesty but headed one of the most corrupt and inept administration ever, he commanded a large followership in the North leading to his election in 2015. But even many of his most fanatical supporters were disenchanted with him going into the election of 2019 with his billboards burnt by irate mobs in his home town of Daura.
No politician has managed to command the large cult figure followership Buhari did. It is not certain any will be able to do so in the near future.
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