Meet the candidates

This edition looks at the candidates for President. It features a detailed look at their training, background, achievements, philosophy and outlook of those running for president, especially of the leading parties. It also includes bits of their manifestos, what they have said and their major selling points.

There are 18 presidential candidates in the 2023 general election, representing 18 political parties. These include the two principal parties which have ruled since the return of democracy on May 29, 1999. These are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was in power from 1999 to 2015, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), in power since 2015. The contest was generally believed to be between these two parties until the emergence of two charismatic insurgent candidates in two different parties. These are Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP). While Obi has stirred a national momentum among young people for his candidacy, Kwankwaso is widely known to have huge support among the ordinary folks in the north.

The insurgent candidates have made it difficult to predict the outcome of the presidential election because of the different voting blocs that they have tried to prise away from the older parties with structures.

The following analysis is on the major candidates – Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi and Kwankwaso. It tells of their strengths and challenges.