A Presidential election was held on 25 February 2023 in Nigeria to elect the president and vice president. All Progressives Congress (APC) nominee Bola Tinubu defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of Labour Party.
Party's primary elections were conducted between 4 April and 9 June 2022; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominated Atiku Abubakar while All Progressives Congress (APC) chose Bola Tinubu as their nominee. The dominance of the two major parties began to fray as a revived party, the Labour Party (LP), nominated Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State while another party, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), nominated Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State. The vice presidential candidates were announced some weeks later, and the nominees were Ifeanyi Okowa for PDP, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed for LP, Kashim Shettima for APC, and Isaac Idahosa for NNPP.
Corruption, electoral malpractice, and insecurity, among others were issues during the election. Others include views for the reformation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who rather cumulated the results from the polling units manually after failing to upload them online through the result viewing portal as assured to the citizens.
The results were announced on 26 February at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, where INEC declared the presidential and vice presidential nominees for APC as the winner in 1 March. The result was rejected by some international bodies as well as the opposition parties who criticised the results and legally challenged it. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo also called for the re-run of the election, citing fraud and violence.
Electoral system
The President of Nigeria is elected using a modified two-round system with up to three rounds. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive a plurality of the national vote and over 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round is held between the top candidate and the candidate winning the second-highest number of states. To win in the second round, a candidate must receive the most votes nationally and over 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. If neither candidate passes this threshold, a third round is held where a simple majority of the national vote is required to be elected.
Background
Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the 2019 Nigerian presidential election. He defeated Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) with a margin of 3,928,869 votes. APC and PDP are the major dominating parties in Nigeria. However, APC mostly won the elections of the legislative elections; House of Representatives and the Senate. PDP held a convention at Abuja 30 October 2021 ahead of the 2023 presidential election after losing in 2015 and 2019.
Ahead of Buhari's second term, his promises included the completion of in-process rail lines, roads and other infrastructural projects, empowering of youths, improvement of schools and industrial parks as well as inclusion of women in government and creating anti-corruption initiatives. His first term was commended for improving, among others, the agricultural sector, infrastructures like the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, and rail lines. Meanwhile, he faced criticism for abandoning anti-corruption initiatives, poor economy and quality of life, insecurity, and terrorism Other events include censorship by banning Twitter after the site removed an abusive tweet he posted in reference to the Nigerian Civil War, handling of the October 2020 protest for End SARS especially the Lekki massacre in Lagos, where several peaceful protesters were killed by the Army.
Primary elections
The primaries election was previously scheduled between 4 April and 3 June 2022 but was later extended to 9 June. Since 1999, Nigeria's two major political parties–APC and PDP— have practised presidential zoning, which sought for geographical balance between the president and his vice. It states that each cannot be from the same geographical location rather either south and the other north or vice versa. Hence a new president should be from the south. Both parties had series of internal debates over zoning and same religion tickets before the primary. Nevertheless, both parties declined zoning. PDP nominated a northerner Atiku Abubakar while APC nominated a southerner Bola Tinubu. APC nominee also chose a Muslim-Muslim ticket while PDP did not.
All Progressives Congress
With Muhammadu Buhari having been elected to the presidency twice, he was ineligible for renomination. In July 2021, then-national APC Caretaker chairman and Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni backed the consensus method of nominating a presidential candidate instead of the more common direct or indirect primary methods but the party did not come to a decision on the primary method at the time. During Buni's term as Caretaker chairman from 2020 to 2022, he campaigned heavily for prominent PDP members to defect to the APC, weakening the opposition's caucus in the National Assembly and gaining three governors—Ebonyi State's Dave Umahi, Cross River State's Benedict Ayade, and Zamfara State's Bello Muhammad Matawalle—in 2020 and 2021. However, the APC's electoral performance and party unity were more mixed as it came a distant third in the 2021 Anambra State gubernatorial election and was still beset by infighting. The APC primary was framed in the wider context of internal party feuds stemming from the APC's formation in 2013 and pre-2019 election party crises to the 2020 removal of party leadership and contentious 2021 state party congresses. The ability of the APC national caretaker committee to resolve state party factionisations and properly organise the 2022 national party convention was seen as vital for both the APC's presidential chances and its future as a party. After several postponements, the convention was successfully held on 26 March 2022 despite some controversy over the consensus method used for most party offices.
In terms of zoning, there was no announced formal zoning agreement for the APC nomination despite calls from certain politicians and interest groups such as the Southern Governors' Forum to zone the nomination to the South as Buhari, a Northerner, was elected twice. Countering its proponents were prospective candidates from the North and the Northern Governors' Forum, which did not oppose a southern presidency but initially disagreed with formal zoning. On the other hand, there were few proponents of a same religion ticket, mainly supporters and allies of eventual nominee Bola Tinubu who argued that there were few powerful Northern Christian APC politicians who could be his running mate. Allies of other potential candidates and groups like the Christian Association of Nigeria came out strongly against the idea of a same religion ticket on grounds of national unity and religious harmony.
On 20 April 2022, the APC National Executive Committee announced the party timetable for the presidential primary and that the primary would use the indirect primary method. The announcement set the party's expression of interest form price at ₦30 million and the nomination form price at ₦70 million with a 50% nomination form discount for candidates younger than 40 while women and candidates with disabilities get free nomination forms. Forms were to be sold from 26 April to 6 May until the deadline was later extended to 10 May then 12 May. After the submission of nomination forms by 13 May, candidates were to be screened by a party committee on 24 and 25 May but it was delayed several times to while the screening appeal process will take place afterwards. Ward congresses and LGA congresses were rescheduled for between 12 and 14 May to elect "ad hoc delegates" for the primary. Candidates approved by the screening process were to advance to a primary set for 30 May and 1 June but the party delayed the primary to 6–8 June.
Before the primary, controversy over the prospective electors emerged due to the legal ramifications of the amended Electoral Act. After years of debate and public pressure, Buhari signed a new Electoral Act in January 2022 that drastically reformed election and electoral systems for both primary and general elections. One of the reforms was the exclusion of ex officio "statutory delegates"—thousands of current and former officeholders—from voting in party primaries; National Assembly leadership said the exclusion was inadvertent and in May, NASS passed an amendment to the act to allow statutory delegates to vote in primaries. However, Buhari refused to sign the amendment into law, forcing the APC to suddenly prohibit statutory delegates from voting. Not only did the action prevent Buhari and other high-ranking officeholders from voting, it drastically reduced the number of delegates from over 7,800 to just the 2,322 elected "ad hoc delegates".
The pre-primary period was dominated by questions about major candidates and Buhari's endorsement. Of the formally announced candidates, analysts viewed six as the major contenders: Rotimi Amaechi—former Minister of Transportation and former Governor of Rivers State, Kayode Fayemi—Governor of Ekiti State, Ahmad Lawan—Senate President, Yemi Osinbajo—Vice President, former science minister Ogbonnaya Onu, and Bola Tinubu—former Governor of Lagos State. However, two potential surprises emerged: former President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor of the Central Bank Godwin Emefiele. Groups purchasing forms on behalf of Emefiele and Jonathan coupled with months of speculation about their candidacies led to rumours of a plot to impose one of the two as nominee despite the legally-mandated nonpartisanship of Emefiele's office and Jonathan's membership in the PDP; neither candidacy came to fruition as Jonathan refused the forms, while Emefiele was forced to withdraw due to public pressure. The other main question was Buhari's endorsement; despite months of contending that he would not weigh in on the primary, about a week before the primary, Buhari held a meeting with APC governors where he asked them to support his preferred candidate. Reports emerged that while the vast majority of governors agreed, a few rejected the proposal or did not state their position. Another point of contention was the oft-postponed candidate screening, where a committee led by former APC National chairman John Odigie Oyegun cleared all twenty-three candidates but recommended only thirteen candidates continue their campaigns due to their perceived chances of victory.
In the days directly before the primary, the vast majority of northern APC governors released a letter in support of a southern nominee where they also asked northern candidates to withdraw; in response, one northern candidate withdrew from the primary. Later that day (4 June 2022), Buhari held a meeting with most APC candidates where he reportedly privately backed a nominee from the south and told the candidates to find a consensus nominee amongst themselves. However, on 6 June—the day before primary voting, national party chairman Abdullahi Adamu told northern APC governors that the party's (and Buhari's) consensus candidate would be Lawan; the announcement was met with opposition by governors and other members of the party's National Working Committee leading the party to backtrack and claim that Adamu was just expressing his personal opinion. The same day, Buhari stated that he had no anointed candidate in the primary. Then early on primary day, APC governors and the party NWC made a joint recommendation of five southern candidates—Amaechi, Fayemi, Osinbajo, Tinubu, and Governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi—to Buhari while asking all other aspirants to withdraw from the race. Seven other candidates released a joint statement rejecting the shortlist while all six southeastern candidates penned a letter to Buhari asking that the nomination be zoned to the South-East.