Meet the top 4 candidates in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election

Bola Tinubu (APC)

Affidavits and other documents that he presented to INEC indicated that he was born on March 27, 1952. Tinubu is a politician, a former Governor of Lagos State (1999 – 2007), and a former Senator for Lagos West. He attended St John Primary School, Lagos, and Children’s Home School, Ibadan. He moved to the United States in 1975, where he studied at Richard .J. Daley College, Chicago, and Chicago State University, where he graduated with a BSc. in Accounting in 1979.

He worked for American companies, including Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, and Haskins, before he returned to Nigeria in 1983, where he joined Mobil Oil Nigeria.

Tinubu started his political carrier in 1992 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. He contested and won the gubernatorial seat of Lagos State at the 1999 General Election. He ended his first four-year tenure in 2003 and was sworn in again in April 2003 for a second four-year tenure after his victory at the 2003 General Election. His 8-year tenure was characterized by controversies and power tussles with the federal government controlled by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

In 2014 he played a major role in the alliance of some political parties that led to the formation of APC (All Progressive Congress), the party that won the presidential seat in the 2015 General Election. Tinubu wanted to be the vice presidential candidate, but being a Muslim and the President (Buhari) was also a Muslim, the party members and Nigerians rejected it. He stepped aside and appointed Professor Yemi Osibanjo to replace him.

As the tenure of the APC-led federal government ends in March 2023, Tinubu won the party’s primary election and emerged as the presidential flag bearer for the 2023 election.