Lagos – Nigeria’s ruling party chief and influential former Lagos governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on Monday he intends to run for the presidency in the 2023 election.
Tinubu, leader of the All Progressives Congress or APC party, told reporters he had informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his decision during a meeting with him in Abuja.
A Muslim from the southwest of Nigeria, Tinubu is the highest profile candidate so far to announce his intention to run in the February 2023 ballot to replace Buhari.
“I have informed the president of my intention. but I have not informed Nigerians yet. I am still consulting,” he told reporters. “It’s a lifelong ambition.”
A year before the key ballot in Africa’s most populous nation, potential candidates in the ruling APC and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party or PDP are already jockeying for position.
ALSO READ | Nigeria’s Buhari orders Twitter ban lifted once conditions met
Among those being touted to run are Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, ex Senate president Bukola Saraki and former president Goodluck Jonathan who handed over to Buhari.
Part of the debate over the presidential election involves “zoning” – an unofficial, power-sharing agreement that calls for the presidency to rotate between candidates from the north and the south.
After two terms with northern Buhari, a former army commander first elected in 2015, many southern leaders want a president from their region. Many leaders from the north disagree.
Security will be a key issue in the election with Nigeria struggling with heavily armed criminal gangs in the northwest and a grinding, more than decade-long jihadist insurgency in its northeast.
A major oil producer and Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria is also recovering from the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, high inflation and a weak naira currency.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
