Nigeria: Ruling party picks Tinubu for 2023 presidential ticket

The 70-year-old will slug it out in opposition to the opposition’s 75-year-old candidate to succeed 79-year-old President Buhari.

Bola Tinubu, former Lagos state governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) chief, speaks at a celebration assembly in Abuja Febuary 17, 2015 [File; Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters]

Nigeria’s governing celebration has chosen its nationwide chief Bola Tinubu as its presidential candidate for the upcoming 2023 elections.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain will now deal with opposition chief Atiku Abubakar as the 2 vie to succeed incumbent Muhammadu Buhari as president of Africa’s greatest economic system.

Within the primaries held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Tinubu, 70, a former two-time governor of Lagos, gained with 1,271 votes, forward of former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi’s 316 votes and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s 235 votes. Senate President Ahmad Lawan scored 152 votes.

The septuagenarian was one of many first candidates to declare his intention to succeed Buhari whose second and remaining time period ends in Could subsequent 12 months.

To develop into president, he must defeat the Folks’s Democratic Occasion flagbearer  Atiku – his former enterprise companion and one other founding father of the APC – within the common elections scheduled for February 2023.

Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governors of Anambra and Kano states and candidates of smaller opposition events, are seen as wildcards within the race.

In an emotionally charged speech final week, Tinubu had stated it was his “flip” to occupy the Aso Rock presidential palace, in return for getting Buhari elected in 2015.

“If it weren't for me standing earlier than you main the military, saying Buhari, go forward, we’re behind you, he may by no means have develop into the President,” the APC chief stated whereas addressing APC delegates in Ogun state.

“I've carried out my greatest to guard the youngsters,” he stated. “I too wish to develop into the President. I don’t wish to be erased from historical past.”

Within the lead-up to the first elections, 9 different candidates withdrew from the race and pledged their delegates to Tinubu. One other aspirant did the identical for Osinbajo.

If elected, Tinubu must cope with escalating insecurity throughout the nation in addition to an economic system struggling to rebound after exiting the second recession in 5 years, in 2020.