When in 2003 Ali Modu Sheriff printed his posters for his senatorial contests and presented himself with Muhmmadu Buhari on the handbills and posters, not many knew that their paths would cross more often years later. They both belonged to the opposition party ANPP and they had their own large followership. One thing you could not take from Buhari was the fact that he enjoyed a followership that was fiercely loyal given the fact that he was seen as a lover of the masses. Ali Modu however was the kingmaker who installed his man as Governor and then went to Senate but in 2003, he came back for the governorship seat which he won. The need to ensure that he had a strong foothold in Borno must have therefore made Buhari become close to Ali Modu sheriff who then was the kingmaker in the North Eastern State.
Even when other factors attempted to undermine Buhari’s several attempts at the Presidency, the ANPP was a strong platform for him because he had the backing of the party’s governors. Some might also have argued that he needed them the same way he needed to ride on his mass acceptance to win their own seats.
During the two terms of Ali Modu Sheriff as governor of Borno State, Buhari ran on the ticket of the ANPP for the presidency. Even after he left power in 2011 and the incumbent Governor took over from him, Sheriff still held sway. It is widely believed that given his deep-pocketed nature Sheriff financed the Borno axis of the campiagn each time Buahri had to run for the presidency on the platform of the ANPP.
No wonder when in December 2012, Babangana Mohammed Sheriff had to marry, it was Ali Modu Sheriff who acted as the father figure.
Ali Modu Sheriff is not the father of Babangana Mohammed Sheriff. However he had always been the father figure behind the young man and indeed, not just that they are from the same family, he treated him like a son. It must be noted that Ali Modu’s two sons were still young at that time and they remain single till date.
Ali Modu however parted ways with Buahri when the ANPP broke into two factions prior to the 2011 elections with one faction clinging to the name ANPP while the other went ahead to register the name CPC under Buhari’s leadership.
The merger of ANPP, CPC and ACN which gave birth to APC also saw the coming together of the two leaders but the former Borno Governor was not comfortable that the party structure in the State was not handed over to him, rather it was given to Shettima who he made Governor but who had parted ways with him.
Based on this, Ali Modu Sheriff parted ways with Buhari again, moving into PDP. But many people know that his mind and soul remain with the structures he left with the APC and this was reflected in the way APC trounced PDP in the elections. What many have come to accept as reality is the fact that Ali Modu Sheriff even in PDP has never criticized Buhari, rather which brings the issue of their unwritten allegiance to the fore
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