Nigeria’s next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on Feb. 16, 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission said on its official Twitter account on Thursday.
The date will mark the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term. It is not yet clear if the president will recontest as he has not said if he will run again.
Buhari came to power in 2015, promising to crack down on endemic corruption, rid the country of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the northeast and kickstart a flagging economy. Reuters report.
Critics say his presidency has been marred by inertia and little progress has been made on those key policies.
Buhari has been absent for much of 2017 because of an undisclosed medical problem, which calls into question whether he will stand next year. It also creates uncertainty for his All Progressives Congress party that was created to elect him.
While the rulling All Progressive Congress (APC) has not made any clear statement on the intention of the incumbent president, the opposition People’s Democractic party (PDP) is battling it out with one of its governors who has declared his intention to run for the apex office in the land.
QuicknewsAfrica recall that governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state officially declared his intention to contest the presidential election come 2019 in an event last Thursday where he claimed to be the only one who can dislodge President Buhari from the Aso Villa.
The PDP has however reacted that the governor’s declaration run foul of the party’s zoning agreement which has seeded the party chairmansip to the south and the preseidency to the north.
