In no particular order, below are some of the presidential aspirants contesting on the platform of the two major parties in Nigeria; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
10. Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu, CON
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the All Progressive Congress since its inception in 2013, was born on March 29, 1952.
He went to St. John’s Primary School, Lagos, and Children’s Home School in Ibadan before graduating with an accounting degree in 1979.
Bola Tinubu entered politics in 1992 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. A former senator from the Republic of the Third Republic.
From May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007, he was the Governor of Lagos State.
Bola Tinubu announced his desire to run for President of Nigeria on January 10, 2022. Senator Oluremi Tinubu is her husband.
9. Atiku Abubarkar, GCON
A Nigerian politician and businessman who served as Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency.
He attended his Elementary School in Jada, Adamawa State, and then went on to provincial secondary school, where he received a grade of 3 on the West African Senior School Certificate test, and afterwards went on to Ahmadu Bello University to pursue a law degree.
Former Governor of Adamawa State and founder of the American University of Nigeria.
Atiku has run for president three times, unsuccessfully in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019.
8. Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo
He is a Nigerian lawyer, professor, and politician who has served as Nigeria’s Vice President since 2015. Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Attorney General of Lagos State.
Born in Lagos on March 8, 1957, he is a law graduate of the University of Lagos and a graduate of the London Business School.
Osinbajo is former law professor who practised till 1999. He is a law professor and a former adviser to Prince Bola Ajibola, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Osinbajo is the Pastor in Charge of the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s Lagos Province 48.
7. Rotimi Amaechi
Amaechi was born on May 27, 1965, in Ubina, Rivers State’s Ikwerre Local Government Area.
After attending Government Secondary School in Okolobiri, he received his West African Senior School Certificate in 1982.
He got a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Literature Studies from the University of Port Harcourt in 1987.
Amaechi was a former member of the Rivers state legislature (1999-2007). He ran and won the state’s governorship as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007.
In November 2013, Amaechi alongside seven serving governors who formed the G-7 faction within the PDP defected to the new opposition party the All Progressives Congress (APC) and became director-general of Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign.
6. Yahaya Adoza Bello
Yahaya Bello was born on the 15th of June, 1975.
He is a Nigerian politician and businessman who has been the governor of Kogi State since 2016.
Before joining politics in the mid-2000s, he studied Accounting and Business Administration at Ahmadu Bello University.
He is a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and a sports and fitness enthusiast. Bello is Nigeria’s youngest governor and the only one born after the country’s civil war.
Bello announced his intention to run for President of Nigeria in the 2023 election on April 2, 2022.
5. Nyesom Wike
Born on December 13, 1963, he is the sixth and current governor of Rivers state. He attended government secondary school Eneka, Rivers State.
He then gained admission to River State University of Science and Technology (RSUT), where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Political and Administrative Studies.
Under the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration, he served as Minister of State for Education.
He then left his position as Minister of Transportation in 2015 to contest for the position of the governor of Rivers State.
4. John Olukayode Fayemi
Born on February 9, 1965, he is a Nigerian politician who has been the Governor of Ekiti State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governor Forum (NGF) since October 16, 2018. He previously served in the same capacity between 2010 to 2014.
Fayemi is a History, Political Science, and International Relations graduate.
Fayemi joined partisan politics in 2006 when he emerged as the governorship candidate of the now-defunct Action Congress (AC).
He was sworn in as Ekiti state governor for the second time in October 2018, after serving as Minister of State for Solid Minerals and Development.
Fayemi’s term as Governor from 2010 to 2014 was probed by the ICPC in 2016 for alleged embezzlement of nearly $25 billion.
3. Ahmed Lawan
Ahmed Lawan is a Nigerian politician and professor who currently serves as the President of the Nigeria Senate. In 1984, he graduated from the University of Maiduguri with a bachelor’s degree in geography and a master’s and doctorate degree in remote sensing.
As a member of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review and a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Lawan was elected to the Senate in 2007.
Senator Ahmed Lawan of the All Progressive Congress was elected and sworn in as Senate President on June 11, 2019, defeating Senator Ali Ndume of the same party.
2. Obi Peter Gregory
Peter Obi is a Nigerian politician and businessman who was born on July 19, 1961. He was the governor of Anambra from March 17, 2006, to November 2, 2006.
He was impeached and reinstated on February 9, 2007, but his impeachment was reversed on May 29, 2007. He was subsequently re-elected for a second term.
A philosophy graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as well as a product of Lagos Business School in Nigeria and Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.
He was Fidelity Bank Plc’s youngest chairman. In the 2019 presidential election, he was a previous vice presidential contender.
He announced his desire to run for President of Nigeria under the People Democratic Party in March 2022.
Obi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and announced his withdrawal from the party’s primaries on May 25, 2022.
1. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
Born on November 20, 1957, Jonathan is a Nigerian politician who served as the country’s president from 2010 to 2015.
He was the first incumbent president in Nigeria’s history to concede defeat in an election after losing to the former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010 under Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration and as Governor of oil-rich Bayelsa State from 2005 to 2007.
A graduate of the University of Port Harcourt, he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology with Honors; a Master’s Degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries Biology, and a PhD in Zoology.
Jonathan at the time of publication hasn’t publicly declared his intention to run but there have been indications that he’s interested.
