Campaigning kicks off in Nigeria on Wednesday, five months ahead of elections scheduled for January 2027.
Africa's most populous country is experiencing its toughest economic crisis in decades as President Bola Tinubu seeks a second term. The presidential vote will be held on January 16 alongside parliamentary elections, while gubernatorial elections will be held Feb. 6.
The poll will in part be a rematch of 2023, with Tinubu again running against former southeastern governor Peter Obi and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar. The president is challenged by 18 opposition candidates.
Tinubu won that poll with 36.6 percent of the vote. Abubakar took 29 percent and Obi notched 25 percent.
The president has used his first term to push through ambitious economic reforms, including ending a costly fuel subsidy that for years had indirectly suppressed prices throughout the economy.
Though praised by economists and investors, the reforms have sparked a cost-of-living crisis that saw the value of the naira crumble and inflation spike up to 34 percent. Headline inflation cooled to 15.4 percent in July.
A slide into poverty, pre-dating Tinubu, has continued for millions, with more than 60 percent of Nigerians now living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, up from 40 percent in 2019.
The country is also mired in multiple security crises - from terrorists, "bandit" gangs and farmers and herders fighting over land.
"The most important issues for me are the economy and cost of living," said civil servant Afolayan Abdullahi, 42, who said he intended to vote for Tinubu.
Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress party controls the national assembly and 31 of 36 governorships.
Rabiu Kwankwaso, who garnered about six percent of the vote in the 2023 election, has teamed up with Obi to run as his vice president.
Turnout was just 27 percent in 2023.
