Chinelo Obogo
MuhammaduBuhari
Buhari, a Fulani Muslim, was born on December 17, 1942, in the north western town of Daura in Katsina State. At the age of 19, he enrolled in the Nigerian Military Training College in 1962. He was appointed the governor of North Eastern State and served from August 2, 1975 to February 3, 1976. He was one of the leaders of the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of the late Shehu Shagari in 1983. He then went on to serve as the head of state from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985. He was overthrown through another coup in less than two years into his administration by the Ibrahim Babangida regime.
His presidential attempts
Buhari had taken various shots at the presidency after his time as military head of state in 1984 and this campaign is his firth run at the presidency.
His political journey for the presidency began in 2003 when he contested on the platform of the now defunct All Peoples Party (APP). In that election, he polled 12.7 million votes. He lost to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. And despite picking the late Chuba Okadigbo as a running mate, Buhari got most of his votes from the north.
In 2007, he contested again on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) against the late Umar Yar’Adua, a fellow Katsina indigene. Again, despite picking Edwin Ume-Ezeoke from the South East as his running mate, his performance was far worse than that of 2003; he polled just 6.6 million votes while Yar’Adua who emerged winner got thrice his votes. In 2010, Buhari left the ANPP with his supporters and founded the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on which platform he again contested the 2011 presidency. This time around, he didn’t pick his running mate from the South East; he chose Tunde Bakare, a clergy from the South West.
On April 16, 2011, he contested against Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and polled 12.2 million votes, losing to Jonathan who got almost twice his votes. Again, the bulk of Buhari’s votes were from the north. In 2014, he made his fourth attempt at the presidency and in December of the same year, he contested for the APC’s ticket against Atiku Abubakar, Kwankwaso and Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha. He polled 3,430 votes to defeat his opponents.
Like in 2011, Buhari picked a cleric from the South West, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as his running mate and for the first time since his many attempts, Buhari won in states outside northern Nigeria, winning all South-West states except Ekiti. The support from the political heavyweights that formed the APC boosted his chances and he won in 21 states to emerge victorious. Buhari’s 2015 and 2019 campaign is built on three promises: to fix the economy, fight corruption and tackle insecurity.
Atiku Abubakar
Atiku Abubakar, a Fulani, a Muslim, was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada village of Adamawa State. He served in the Nigeria Customs Service for 20 years, rising to the rank of Deputy Director. He retired in April 1989 and went into full-time business and politics. He ran for the office of the governor in Gongola State in 1991 but before the election could hold; Gongola was divided into two –Adamawa and Taraba.
He began his presidential journey 26 years ago at the age of 47 and his first attempt was in 1992 when he contested in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential primary but had to step down and told his supporters to vote for late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO) who eventually emerged winner. It is believed that there was an unwritten agreement that Abiola would announce Atiku as his running mate but the former announced Alhaji Babagana Kingibe who was the runner-up instead.
In December 1998, he contested and won the governorship election for Adamawa on the platform of the newly formed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but before he could assume office, he was chosen by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to be his running mate. From 1999 to 2007, Abubakar served as the vice-president to Obasanjo who was elected on the platform of the PDP. He had the ambition to succeed Obasanjo in 2003 but the latter went ahead to complete another term and before the end of the former president’s second tenure, both men had fallen apart.
His second attempt
On 25th November 2006, while still occupying his position as Vice President, Abubakar announced that he would run for president, and on 20th December 2006, he picked the presidential ticket of the Action Congress (AC). On March 14, 2007, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the final list of 24 candidates for the April 21 presidential election but Abubakar’s name was missing from the ballot. Many suspected at the time that his ordeal was as a result of his fall out with Obasanjo but INEC’s explained that his name was missing because he was on a list of persons indicted for corruption by a panel set up by the Federal Government.
The former vice president went to court on March 16, 2007 to have his disqualification overturned and on April 16 of the same year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that INEC had no power to disqualify candidates. Abubakar eventually took part in the election and official results showed that he came third with 2.8 million votes behind the PDP candidate, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, and ANPP candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
His third attempt
Following his loss at the 2007 elections, Abubakar returned to the PDP and in October 2010, he announced his intention to contest for the presidency. January 2011, he contested for the presidential ticket of the party but lost to former President Goodluck Jonathan who polled 3,542 votes against his 805 votes.
His fourth attempt
By 2014, the ANPP, ACN, ANPP, a faction of the PDP and a part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) merged to form the All Progressives Congress (APC). On February 6, 2013, the APC was founded. Abubakar was part of the PDP faction that merged to form the APC and he again gave the presidency another shot by contesting for the presidential ticket of the party. However, Buhari, who also contested polled 3,430 votes to emerge winner, while former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State came a distant second with 974 votes and Abubakar came third with 954 votes.
His fifth attempt
On November 24, 2017, he returned to the PDP after alleging that the political elite have consistently thwarted his presidential ambition. Shortly after his return to the now opposition party, he declared his intention to contest for the presidency. The PDP convention took place in Rivers State last year and was keenly contested by both former and serving governors. All together there were 12 aspirants and a total of 3,274 accredited delegates. At the end of the exercise, Abubakar emerged winner, polling 1,585 votes, while Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal came second with 693 votes.
Abubakar’s wife, Titi recently described his victory at the convention as ‘supernatural’, saying that the support he received from other aspirants and party supporters is an indication that victory at the polls is certain. Atiku’s policy document titled ‘Let’s Get Nigeria Working Again’ shows he has promised restructuring, private sector driven economy, free markets, job creation and power generation.
Kingsley Moghalu
Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, Igbo, Christian, was born in Lagos in 1963. He completed his secondary education and later earned a degree in law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1986. He obtained an M.A. degree at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and later obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in International Relations at the London School of Economics.
He worked for the United Nations from 1992 to 2008 as a human rights and elections officer, political affairs officer in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the UN Headquarters in New York, political advisor to the special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Croatia, legal adviser to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania (and later as the tribunal’s spokesman), and as a member of the high-level Redesign Panel on the United Nations Internal Justice System.
He was appointed Deputy Governor of CBN from 2009 and remained in that position till to 2014. He was also a member of the Board of Directors, the Monetary Policy Committee, and the Committee of Governors of the CBN, and was also a member of Nigeria’s Economic Management Team. He served as a member or chair of the boards of directors of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILMC), Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
This is his first shot at the presidency. He declared his intention to contest for the presidency in February 2018 and emerged the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) at the party’s first national convention in Abuja. The focus of his campaign is to economically restructure the country in a way that every zone benefits. He believes that the six geo-political zones should be restructured into geo-economic zones, a system that will enable regions control their resources and pay taxes to the Federal Government. He believes that this process would take 18 months to complete with the full involvement of the National Assembly.
Fela Durotoye
Fela Durotye was born in Ibadan, Oyo State on 12 May 1971. After his secondary education, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science with Economics and a master’s degree in Business Administration at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
He is running on the platform of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN). He emerged the presidential candidate. September 29, 2018
In a bid to wrest power from the ruling party, 18 presidential aspirants came together to form a coalition called Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT). Durotoye was one of the aspirants who formed the coalition. They came together in July 2018 and resolved to have one consensus candidate to contest against President Muhammadu Buhari. The aspirants initially involved in the coalition included Fela Durotoye, Kingsley Moghalu, Yele Sowore, Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, Ahmed Buhari, Tope Fasua, and Sina Fagbenro-Byron. Others are Eragbe Anslem, Jaye Gaskia, Mathias Tsado, Victor Ani-Laju, Alistair Soyode, Godstime Sidney Iroabuchi, Clement Jimbo, Elishama Ideh, Ayodele Favor Oluwamuyiwa, Dare Fagbemi and Felix Nicholas. After two rounds of voting, the coalition unanimously elected Durotoye as its consensus candidate.
But a month after that July meeting, cracks begun to appear in the coalition and Moghalu pulled out, saying he did not agree with the result of the voting. While Durotoye has some following among the youths, many have dismissed his ambition and alleged lack of seriousness on his part. He has hit back at those who say he was in the race just to improve his resume, saying that it is his passion to salvage the country that drives him. He promised that if elected he will turn around the economy within a short period of time,
Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim
Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim was born June 28, 1965 to a Yoruba mother and a Hausa father from Kebbi State. He is a Nigerian human rights activist and businessman.
His foray into politics began in 1995 when he became National Publicity Secretary of the National Democratic Labour Party (NDLP) in the transition programme announced by the regime of the late Sani Abacha. Eventually his party and some others were denied registration. Rather than find accommodation in the military founded parties, Olawepo-Hashim found association with politicians who opposed Abacha. This group of politicians first organised around the Institute for Civil Society and G-34 and later pioneered the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Following Obasanjo’s election as president in 1999, he served as member/secretary, Youth and Women Development sub-committee of the General T.Y. Danjuma-led Policy Advisory Committee with the late Laila Dogonyaro as chair of the sub-committee. In 2003, Olawepo-Hashim was appointed as a member of the Political Advisory Committee to the President (in the office of the Political Adviser).
He eventually left the PDP to actualise his political ambition and in April 2007, he contested for the governorship ticket of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in Kwara State and was declared first runner-up.