Biography
General Elections: Profile of 2023 presidential candidates and how they emerged
Atiku Abubakar (PDP)
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was born on November 25 , 1946 to Garba Abubakar and Aisha Kande in Jada village of Adamawa.
His only sister died at a young age and that made him the only child of his parents.
At a young age, Abubakar lost his father to an accident in a neighbouring village in 1957.
At the time, Abubakar’s father did not believe in modern education, so he stopped his son from attending a compulsory traditional school.
However, when the government discovered Garba Abubakar’s action, he was jailed for a few days before his mother-in-law was able to pay for his bail. Afterwards, Abubakar started his primary education at Jada Primary School, Adamawa at the age of eight.
Thereafter, in 1960, he proceeded to Adamawa provincial secondary school for his secondary education.
He graduated in 1965 and enrolled in Nigerian Police College, Kaduna. Shortly after, he left the college to take on the position of tax official at the Regional Ministry of Finance.
Also, in 1966, he gained admission into the school of Hygiene, Kano and graduated with a diploma in 1967.
In the same year, Abubakar proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University on scholarship. There, he graduated with a diploma in law in 1969 and immediately got employed with Nigeria Customs Service.
In 1989, Abubakar was selected to represent his constituency at the constituent assembly, set up to form a new constitution for Nigeria.
In September 1990, Abubakar joined the governorship race for the former Gongola state.
However, in 1991 before the election could hold, the Federal Government divided Gongola into two – Adamawa and Taraba. Abubakar fell into Adamawa. Although, he won the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries in November 1991 but was disqualified from contesting in the election.
In 1998, he contested as the governor of Adamawa on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform and won. However, before his swearing-in, he accepted to be the running mate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Abubakar was thereafter sworn in as the Vice-President of Nigeria on May 29, 1999.
Since his joining politics, Abubakar has unsuccessfully contested five times for the office of President of Nigeria. He did that in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.
In 1993, he contested the (SDP) presidential primaries losing to late Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe.
He was a presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC) in the 2007 presidential election coming in third to late Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. He contested the presidential primaries of the PDP during the 2011 presidential election losing out to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2014, he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 presidential election and contested the presidential primaries losing to Muhammadu Buhari. In 2017, he returned to the PDP and was the presidential candidate for the 2019 election, which he lost to Buhari.
On May 27, Abubakar won the PDP presidential ticket for 2023 general elections, after polling 371 out of the 767 accredited votes to defeat his closest rival, Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers who polled 237 votes.
Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, came a distant third with 70 votes. While former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, scored 14 votes, Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi got 20 votes, while Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom scored 38 votes.
Dele Momodu and Ayo Fayose, Charles Ugwu, and Chikwendu Kalu scored zero votes each, while Tarella Diana and Sam Ohuabunwa each received one vote.
Abubakar is married to four wives and is blessed with 28 children.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (APC)
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was born on March 29, 1952 in Lagos state. His mother Abibatu Mogaji, was a trader that later became the Iyaloja of Lagos State.
She died on June 15, 2013, at the age of 96.
He attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos and Children’s Home School, Ibadan.
Tinubu travel to the U.S in 1975, where he studied first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, Illinois and then at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science (BSC ) degree in Accounting.
Tinubu worked with some U.S companies- Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, and GTE Services Corporation before returning to Nigeria.
After returning to Nigeria in 1983, he joined Mobil Oil Nigeria and later became an executive of the company. He joined politics in 1992 and was elected as Senator representing Lagos West at the National Assembly on the banner of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
After the late military head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu become an activist, campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement. Although he was forced into exile in 1994, Tinubu returned after Abacha’s death in 1998.
Tinubu was elected as the governor of Lagos State in 1999 on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD).
During his eight-year in office, he made large investments in education in the state and also initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state.
After leaving office in 2007, Tinubu retained his status as one of Nigeria’s most influential politicians and he played a key role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress in 2013.
Tinubu was among the politicians who created the APC as a “mega opposition” party with the merger of Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP (nPDP), a faction of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
This key role in the formation of the party gave him the title of APC National Leader.
On June 8, Tinubu won the APC presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections, after scoring 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other aspirants at the Special National Convention of the party in Abuja.
The aspirants included Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajuba, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Chief Ikeobasi Mokelu, Sen. Rochas Okorocha, Mr Tein Jack-Rich and Gov. Ben Ayade.
Others were Governor David Umuahi, Sen. Ahmad Yarima, Dr Ahmed Lawal, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Gov. Yahaya Bello and Mr Ogbonnaya Onu.
The race began with 23 aspirants, but nine withdrew shortly before the commencement of voting at the convention.
They included Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohnenye, Dr Felix Nicholas, former Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, former Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, former Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Sen. Ajayi Boroffice, Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa, Sen. Ken Nnamani and Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State.
Peter Obi (LP)
Peter Gregory Obi was born on July 19, 1961 in Onitsha. He attended Christ the King College, Onitsha, where he completed his secondary school education.
He was admitted to the University of Nigeria, in 1980, graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy in 1984.
Obi attended Lagos Business School, where he completed the Chief Executive Programme, Harvard Business School, where he completed two major programs, the London School of Economics, Columbia Business School, and the International Institute for Management Development where he received certificates in the Senior Executive Program and the Chief Executive Officer Programme.
He also attended the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University, Saïd Business School of Oxford University and the Judge Business School of Cambridge University.
Obi was a businessman before he ventured into politics. He contested in the Anambra State Governorship Election as a candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2003, but his opponent, Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
After nearly three years of litigation, Ngige’s victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006. Obi assumed office on March 17, 2006, but was impeached On Nov. 2, 2006, by the State House of Assembly after seven months in office and was replaced by his deputy Virginia Etiaba.
He was re-instated on February 9, 2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. In April 2007, Obi was removed from office after a new governorship election was held by INEC, but the judiciary intervened again and ruled that he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term. In 2010, he won re-election for a second term in office.
Obi assumed a new status as an advocate for good governance after leaving office in 2014, leading to his defection to the PDP from APGA.
In 2019, Obi was picked as the Atiku Abubakar running mate on the platform of the PDP, but lost to President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling APC.
Obi was among the top presidential aspirants of the PDP for the 2023 poll, before defecting to the Labour Party (LP) in May.
On May 30, Obi was declared the presidential candidate of the LP after three other aspirants – Prof. Pat Utomi, Mr Joseph Faduri and Mrs Olubusola Tella stepped down for him.
Obi is married to Margaret Brownson and they have two children – a boy and a girl.
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (NNPP)
Musa Kwankwaso was on born Oct. 21, 1956 in Kwankwaso, a village located in Madobi LGA of Kano State. His father was the village head of Kwankwaso with the title of Sarkin Fulani, Dagacin Kwankwaso; he was promoted to the District Head of Madobi with the title of Majidadin Kano, Hakimin Madobi by the Kano Emirate Council of Emir Ado Bayero.
He attended Kwankwaso Primary School, Gwarzo Boarding Senior Primary School, Wudil Craft School and Kano Technical College before proceeding to Kaduna Polytechnic where he did both his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma.
Kwankwaso was an active student leader during his school days and was an elected official of the Kano State Students Association.
He also attended postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1983 at the Middlesex Polytechnic; and Loughborough University of Technology where he received a master’s degree in water engineering in 1985.
He also got his Ph D in water engineering at Sharda University India in 2022.
Kwankwaso joined the Kano State Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency of the Government of Kano State in 1975. He served there for seventeen years in various capacities and rose through the ranks to become the principal water engineer.
Kwankwaso made his entry into politics in 1992 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a member of the People’s Front faction of the SDP led by Gen. Shehu Yar’adua.
He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives representing Madobi Federal Constituency.
His subsequent election as deputy speaker in the House brought him to the limelight of national politics.
During the 1995 Constitutional Conference, Kwankwaso was elected as a delegate from Kano, as a member of the People’s Democratic Movement led by Yar’adua.
He later joined the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) in the transition programme of late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha.
Kwankwaso joined the PDP in 1998 and was elected as the governor of Kano State in 1999, but he lost his re-election bid in 2003. After he lost his re-election in 2003, he was appointed the Minister of Defence by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was re-elected as the governor in 2011 and in 2015 he was elected as Senator representing Kano Central on the platform of APC.
In 2015, Kwankwaso unsuccessfully contested the presidential primaries nomination on the platform of APC, but lost to Buhari. In 2018, he returned to PDP and contested the presidential primaries losing out to Atiku Abubakar.
He remained in the PDP until May 30, when he defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
On June 8, Kwankwaso emerged as the presidential candidate of the NNPP for the 2023 general elections.
Kwankwaso, who was the sole presidential aspirant, emerged at the party’s special convention in Abuja.
Retired Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha (AA)
Retired Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha was born on July 27, 1960, and was educated in Nguru, Yobe.
He enrolled at the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1983.
Al-Mustapha was trained as a military intelligence operative. He held various command posts in the Security Group of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (SG-DMI), 82 Division and Army Headquarters and Ministry of Defence among others.
From August 1985 to August 1990, Al-Mustapha was Aide-de-camp (ADC) to Chief of Army Staff, late Gen. Sani Abacha, who eventually became the military head of state in 1993.
He served as Abacha’s Chief Security Officer from 1993 until his sudden death on June 8, 1998.
Following his death, Al-Mustapha assembled the military hierarchy in order to avoid a succession crisis.
General Abdulsalam Abubakar emerged as head of state on June 9, 1998, and Al-Mustapha was removed from office and subsequently arrested.
After his arrest, Al-Mustapha was first held and questioned during the Oputa panel, then accused of plotting at least four coups from prison, before being moved to the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, where he was detained for over some years.
Al-Mustapha relocated to Kano after his release before joining politics in 2017 when he founded the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN).
In 2019, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) but couldn’t make much impact in the election.
On June 8 Al-Mustapha clinched the Action Alliance (AA) presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections.
He scored 506 votes to beat his only opponent, Chief Samson Odupitan, who polled 216 votes at the party’s primaries in Abuja.
Four aspirants began the contest, but two of them, Mr Tunde Kelani and Chief Osakwe Johnson, stepped down for Al-Mustapha shortly before the election, which was conducted using the option A4 formula.
