2023 Nigerian elections

2023 Nigerian elections

← 2019 2023 2027 →
Presidential election
Turnout	26.71% (8.04pp)
Nominee Bola Tinubu Atiku Abubakar Party APC PDP Home state Lagos Adamawa Running mate Kashim Shettima Ifeanyi Okowa States carried 12 12 Popular vote 8,794,726 6,984,520 Percentage 36.61% 29.07%   Nominee Peter Obi Rabiu Kwankwaso Party LP New Nigeria Peoples Party Home state Anambra Kano Running mate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed Isaac Idahosa States carried 11 + FCT 1 Popular vote 6,101,533 1,496,687 Percentage 25.40% 6.23%
President before election Muhammadu Buhari APC Elected President Bola Tinubu APC
National Assembly elections
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Senate APC Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan PDP Vacant YPP Ifeanyi Ubah[a] APGA Enyinnaya Abaribe[a] New Nigeria Peoples Party Ibrahim Shekarau[a] House of Representatives APC Femi Gbajabiamila PDP Ndudi Elumelu New Nigeria Peoples Party Rufai Ahmed Alkali[b] APGA Victor Ikechukwu Oye[b] SDP Vacant[b] LP Julius Abure[b] ADC Leke Abejide[c] PRP Umar Abdulkadir Sarki[c] Accord Shina Peller[c] This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Gubernatorial elections
30 governorships
Majority party Minority party Third party   Party APC PDP APGA

Politics of Nigeria
Constitution Human rights
Government President (list) Bola Tinubu Vice President Kashim Shettima Cabinet Federal Parastatals
Legislature National Assembly of Nigeria Senate President Godswill Akpabio (APC) Deputy President Barau Jibrin (APC) (List of members of the Senate) House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas (APC) Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu (APC) (List of members of the House) State delegations Abia Adamawa Akwa Ibom Anambra Bauchi Bayelsa Benue Borno Cross River Delta Ebonyi Edo Ekiti Enugu Gombe Imo Jigawa Kaduna Kano Katsina Kebbi Kogi Kwara Lagos Nasarawa Niger Ogun Ondo Osun Oyo Plateau Rivers Sokoto Taraba Yobe Zamfara FCT
Judiciary Supreme Court
Subdivisions States State governors Local Government Areas
Elections Recent elections Parliamentary:2015 2019 2023 Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Yusuf Tuggar Diplomatic missions of / in Nigeria Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
Nigeria portal Other countries
v t e

The 2023 Nigerian elections were held in large part on 25 February and 11 March 2023. The president and vice president were elected on 25 February, with incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari ineligible to run, being term-limited.^[1] Additionally, there were also elections on the same day for the Senate and the House of Representatives. On 11 March, twenty-eight gubernatorial elections were held alongside elections to state houses of assembly in all 36 states.^[1] Three additional gubernatorial elections will be held later in the year alongside potential rerun elections for regularly scheduled elections annulled from earlier in the year.

The President of Nigeria is elected using a modified two-round system with up to three rounds. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive a plurality of the votes and over 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a majority of votes in the highest number of states. In the second round, a candidate still must receive the most votes and over 25% of the vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to be elected. If neither candidate passes this threshold, a third round will be held where just majority of the votes is required to be elected.

The 109 members of the Senate are elected from 109 single-seat constituencies (three in each state and one for the Federal Capital Territory) by first-past-the-post voting.^[2] The 360 members of the House of Representatives are also elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies.^[3]

Similarly to the president, Governors are elected using a modified two-round system. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive the plurality of the vote and over 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of state local government areas. If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a plurality of votes in the highest number of local government areas.

The 991 members of the state Houses of Assembly are elected using first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies.

With President Muhammadu Buhari having been elected to the office of president twice, he was ineligible for renomination. There was no formal zoning agreement for the APC nomination despite calls from politicians and interest groups such as the Southern Governors' Forum to zone the nomination to the South as Buhari, a northerner, was elected twice.^[4] The party held its indirect presidential primary on 8 June 2022 in Abuja and nominated Bola Tinubu former Governor of Lagos State.^[5][6] In mid-June, the APC submitted the name of Kabir Ibrahim Masari—a politician and party operative from Katsina State—as a placeholder vice presidential nominee to be substituted at a later date.^[7] On 10 July, Ibrahim Masari formally withdrew as vice presidential nominee and the later that day, Tinubu announced Kashim Shettima—Senator for Borno Central and former Governor of Borno State—as his replacement.^[8]

APC ticket
Presidential nominee	Vice Presidential nominee
Bola Tinubu	Kashim Shettima
Governor of Lagos State (1999–2007)	Senator for Borno Central (2019–2023)

On 30 May 2022, shortly after former Governor of Anambra State Peter Obi joined the party from the PDP, the Labour Party held its presidential primary in Asaba where Obi was nominated unopposed.^[9] On 17 June, the party submitted the name of Doyin Okupe—a physician and former PDP candidate who became the Director-General of the Obi Campaign Organisation—as a placeholder vice presidential nominee to be substituted for someone else at a later date.^[10] On 7 July, Okupe formally withdrew as vice presidential nominee and the next day, Obi announced Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed—former Senator for Kaduna North—as his replacement.^[11][12]

LP ticket
Presidential nominee	Vice Presidential nominee
Peter Obi	Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed
Governor of Anambra State (2006; 2006–2007; 2007–2014)	Senator for Kaduna North (2011–2012)

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) held its convention and presidential primary election on 8 June 2022 and nominated Rabiu Kwankwaso, who was the sole candidate, as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.^[13] On 14 July 2022, Kwankwaso picked Isaac Bishop Idahosa as his running mate and vice presidential candidate of the NNPP.^[14]

NNPP ticket
Presidential nominee	Vice Presidential nominee
Rabiu Kwankwaso	Isaac Idahosa
Governor of Kano State (1999–2003; 2011–2015)	Bishop of God First Ministry a.k.a. Illumination Assembly (1985–present)

In October 2021, newly elected PDP Chairman Iyorchia Ayu backed the indirect primary method of nominating a presidential candidate instead of the direct or consensus methods.^[15] There was no zoning agreement for the PDP nomination despite calls from politicians and interest groups such as the Southern Governors' Forum to zone the nomination to the South as the APC's Buhari, a Northerner, was elected twice.^[16] The party held its indirect presidential primary on 28 May 2022 in Abuja and nominated Atiku Abubakar—its 2019 nominee and former Vice President.^[17][18] On 16 June, Abubakar selected Governor of Delta State Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.^[19]

PDP ticket
Presidential nominee	Vice Presidential nominee
Atiku Abubakar	Ifeanyi Okowa
Vice President of Nigeria (1999–2007)	Governor of Delta State (2015–2023)

All 109 seats in the Senate of Nigeria was up for election alongside the presidential and House of Representatives elections on 25 February 2023.

All 360 seats in the House of Representatives of Nigeria was up for election alongside the presidential and Senate elections on 25 February 2023.

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Elections will hold for the governorships of thirty-one of the 36 states of Nigeria. All but three were held on 11 March 2023, while the Kogi State, Imo State, and Bayelsa State elections were held on 11 November.

Elections were held for the House of Assembly of all 36 states of Nigeria on 11 March 2023.

At least two statewide local elections were held in 2023:

• Abia: The Abia State Independent Electoral Commission called local elections for 28 April.^[20]

• Cross River: The Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission called local elections for 24 May.^[21]