On Tuesday, February 14 at 19:30 GMT:
Political candidates in Nigeria are making final appeals for support in the February 25 general election.
Voters in Africa’s most populous country will elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is nearing the end of his second and final term in office.
Eighteen candidates are competing for the position of president. The three are clear favorites – Bola Tinubu from the ruling All Progressives Congress; the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who lost to Buhari in the 2019 elections; and Peter Obi, the Labor Party candidate who wants to abolish the two-party system.
As Election Day approaches, millions of people affected by unemployment, inflation and fuel and cash shortages are examining the candidates’ economic plans. Insecurity is also a major concern among voters, as banditry in the northwest of the country and attacks by groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) in the northeast remain a persistent challenge to the government and security forces. Secessionist groups have been blamed for a series of recent attacks on electoral commission offices in southeastern Nigeria, further raising concerns about the freedom and fairness of voting.
More than 96 million registered voters will elect members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Political analysts will closely monitor the votes of more than 10.5 million newly registered voters, 84 percent of whom are between the ages of 18 and 34.
In this episode of Stream, we look at the presidential candidates’ vision for Nigeria as election day approaches and ask what lies ahead for the country after a change in leadership.
In this episode of Stream we are joined by:
Rino Oduala, @SavvyRinu
Advocate of human rights and community organizer
connecthubng.org
Idayat Hassan, @HassanIdayat
Director of the Center for Democracy and Development
cddwestafrica.org
Eromo Egbejule, @EromoEgbejule
Africa Editor, Al Jazeera English