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by Phil HAZLEWOOD
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 after a wave of hope of defeating the Islamists of Boko Haram and overthrowing a country devastated by decades of corruption and bad governance.
Only God can punish the PDP – Buhari
But while he's going to enter the story as Nigeria"The first opposition candidate to defeat an outgoing president, his first term was dominated by questions about his ability to govern.
From May 2016 to mid-2017, Buhari was in London for more and more medical treatment, forcing the government to deny that he was seriously ill or even dead.
To date, he has not disclosed any details about his condition, except that he has "never been so ill" and had to undergo multiple blood transfusions.
But after US President Donald Trump described it as "lifeless" after President Buhari's visit to Washington, his detractors found a powerful insult.
His absence also sparked one of the most unusual conspiracy theories of politics: he had died and had been replaced by a Sudanese look-alike.
In recent months, some critics have focused less on his physical weaknesses than on his mental faculties.
After an appearance at a live televised Q & A in January 2019, a commentator described Buhari as an intellectual defunct.
Others were less friendly.
Buhari's opponents claimed to have been justified in claiming, prior to the last elections, that he was too old to run and that he had terminally ill prostate cancer.
But his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), rejects these claims as smears.
– Hunted by the past? –
To what extent has Buhari's disease affected its attempt to end the Boko Haram threat, fight corruption and revive the economy, will be discussed for years .
On the security front, worrying signs of a reversal of initial gains against the jihadists have emerged, as ISIS-backed faction strengthens in the north-east.
New security threats have also emerged elsewhere, including pro-Biafran secessionists in the south-east and deadly clashes between farmers and herders in the central states.
In the north, gunmen carry out kidnappings for ransom and cattle robbery, putting them in conflict with self-defense groups set up for lack of policemen.
Buhari, a former army general who led a tough military government in the 1980s, had campaigned on promising to make the country safer.
He also boasted of being a "converted democrat" to persuade the most worried that his military past was a story.
But he struggled to get rid of his claims of authoritarianism – particularly in his fight against corruption, which critics said was unilateral against alleged political opponents.
His main opponent in the presidency, Atiku Abubakar, accuses him of "dictatorship" for suspending the country's highest court a few weeks before the February elections.
Nigerian lawyers have stated that it was "a coup attempt against the judiciary", with the judge hearing any legal challenge to the outcome.
The former president and military leader Olusegun Obasanjo even accused Buhari of trying to copy the radical regime of Sani Abacha, repressing freedom of expression and silencing opponents.
– Decision "cabal" –
Buhari came to power largely thanks to the overwhelming support of northern voters, who still see him as a down-to-earth "man of the people".
He has done little to challenge this perception and is rarely seen otherwise than by the traditional Muslim dress. He has a reputation for a simple lifestyle.
But his leadership style was attacked for concentrating power within a small group of trusted advisers, who, like him, are Muslims of the northern Fulani ethnic group, speaking Hausa.
On several occasions, his wife, Aisha, criticized the alleged "cabal" around her husband, suggesting that they held true power.
She also indicated that she would not support him in his candidacy for reelection. She even retweeted videos of opposition lawmakers criticizing the government.
Critics, who nicknamed Buhari "Baba Go Slow" because it took him six months to name a firm, complain that it has taken time to implement his policies.
Some blamed its economic management after NigeriaThe currency has collapsed and the country has plunged into recession.
But to some extent, the cause of the collapse – the global fall in oil prices – was out of control of Buhari and forced the government to start thinking about the diversification of the economy.
Many are satisfied with having at least begun to tackle the scourge of corruption, even though it sometimes seemed to struggle with a consensual policy.
Buhari, originally from Daura, in the northern state of Katsina, divorced his first wife, Safinatu, with whom he had five children.
Aisha, with whom he married in 1989, is his second wife. They also have five children.
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