As campaign officially begins today, these are the 18 candidates who want Buhari’s job

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, September 28 (today) officially opened the campaign for the presidential candidates to begin the process of convincing Nigerians to vote for them and their political parties.

The election has been touted as one of the fiercest since 1993 due to the high stakes and the calibre of personalities vying for the top job.

The candidates will seek to convince the 96.3 million voters why they deserve to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock from May 29, 2023.

According to the timetable released by INEC, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023, followed by the governorship and State Assembly elections on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

The presidential candidates are Accord Party (AP), Imumolen Christopher; Action Alliance (AA), Al Mustapha Hamza; African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore; African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kachikwu Dumebi; Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yabagi; All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

Also on the ballot are All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Umeadi Chukwudi; Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Ojei Princess Chichi; Action Peoples Party (APP), Nnadi Osita; Boot Party (BP), Adenuga Oluwafemi; Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi; New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso; National Rescue Movement (NRM), Osakwe Johnson; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Abiola Kolawole; Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adebayo Adewole; Young Peoples Party (YPP), Ado-Ibrahim Abdulmalik; and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Dan Nwanyanwu.

Although the campaigns officially start today, the candidates have since been engaged in what they called consultations while their supporters have taken to the streets nationwide to cajole electorates through rallies on why their candidate deserves the nod.

Amid rising calls for issues-based campaigns, checks reveal that some of the key candidates and their spokespersons have been locked in brickbats over issues of ethnic divisions, same-faith tickets and intra-party squabbles, reports Leadership.

The issues affecting Nigerians include the issue of national cohesion, security, debt crisis, education reforms, healthcare decline and acute economic distress, corruption, and plugging of financial wastages.

NBA