Presidential and National Assembly Elections
Welcome. Today, millions of Nigerians will elect the next President and National Assembly members. This is the seventh consecutive general election in this Fourth Republic which started in 1999.
Expectations are high that the election shall be like none before.
Mr Peter Obi, an Igbo and former Governor of Anambra State, is the flag bearer of the resurgent Labour Party, LP.
One of the main contenders is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, a Yoruba, who had served for two terms as the Governor of Lagos State. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, another political force in the election is a Fulani like the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari. He is flying the flag of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
This is reminiscent of the geo-political parallel in the country’s presidential election when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Igbo) of the Nigerian People’s Party, NPP, squared up against Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Yoruba) of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, and Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Hausa/Fulani of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN; and for the keenly contested 1979 polls which Shagari eventually won.
However, political analysts have talked of a three-horse presidential race with no certainty on who will likely be the country’s next president after the incumbent.
But it will be wrong to ignore Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, who is a force and arguably makes it a four-horse race.
Here, at Vanguard, we will follow the voters and bring you live updates from across the country.
Stay with us for briefs, pictures and videos of the elections. Nigerians decide!
