final lap

Nigeria 2023: 10 things to know about the presidential election 

By Ben Ezeamalu

Posted on Friday, 24 February 2023 17:08
A general view of bags containing electoral materials at the Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission office in Awka, Nigeria on February 23, 2023, ahead of the Nigerian presidential elections scheduled for February 25, 2023. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt / AFP)

Millions of Nigerians will go to the polls on 25 February to elect a new president in what will be the West African country's sixth election since the return to democracy in 1999.

18 candidates – 17 men and one woman – are running to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, the former military dictator who is term-barred after he’d have completed eight years in office on 29 May 2023.

However, the top three frontrunners include Bola Tinubu, 70, a former governor and candidate of Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC); former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, 77, of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and Peter Obi, 61, a businessman and former governor, who is running on the Labour Party platform.

READ MORE Nigeria 2023: Will the election follow the 2019 poll pattern?

Candidates

Peoples Democratic Party
All Progressives Congress
Labour Party
2018 RESULTS

More Nigeria Elections

poll promises

Nigeria 2023: Rhodes-Vivour targets Tinubu’s empire in Lagos

What does it take to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a governorship election in Lagos? You will need to conquer 57 local council ... chairmen, outgun 40 state lawmakers, trounce 27 federal lawmakers, outsmart over 50 traditional rulers, overrun an army of transport hooligans, win over a partisan public service and then defeat the sitting governor and a President-elect. Can Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour pull this off?