INEC Releases Final List of 18 Presidential Candidates for Nigeria’s 2027 Election
INEC has released the final list of 18 presidential candidates for Nigeria’s January 16, 2027 election, including Tinubu, Atiku, Peter Obi and Makinde.
Nigeria's 2027 presidential race has entered a new phase after the Independent National Electoral Commission released the final list of 18 presidential candidates contesting the election.
The list, signed by INEC Secretary Rose Oriaran-Anthony and released on September 12, includes incumbent President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi and Oyo State Governor Oluseyi Makinde.
The publication formally establishes the field of candidates ahead of the presidential election, which is scheduled for January 16, 2027.
Tinubu will seek a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, with Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate.
Atiku will contest under the African Democratic Congress alongside former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi.
Peter Obi will represent the Nigerian Democratic Congress, with former Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as his running mate.
Makinde, meanwhile, is the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement and will run alongside Musa Lawal Daura.
The field also includes Peoples Democratic Party candidate Sandy Ojang Onor, former Cross River State governor Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party, African Action Congress candidate Omoyele Sowore and Social Democratic Party candidate Adewole Adebayo.
Other candidates are Rufai Adekunle Omo-Aje of the Action Alliance, Abbas-Bin Aliyu of the Action Democratic Party, Kabiru Yusuf of the Allied Peoples Party, Sunday Adenuga of the Boot Party, Moses Olusoji Adebisi of the Democratic Leadership Alliance and Sunday Chibuzo Okereke of the Labour Party.
The remaining candidates are Ada Elizabeth Frederick Okwori of the National Democratic Party, Nkem Esther Okereke of the National Rescue Movement, Peter Ada Agada of the Young Progressive Party and Daniel Daberechukwu Nwanyanwu of the Zenith Labour Party.
The final field contains 16 male and two female presidential candidates. The youngest candidate is Moses Adebisi of the DLA at 35, while Atiku Abubakar, 79, is the oldest.
The gender balance is even narrower among the presidential candidates, with Ada Elizabeth Frederick Okwori and Nkem Esther Okereke the only two women on the final list.
The list also contains four female vice-presidential candidates: Peace Egobia Ofordile of the APP, Nafisat Usaku of the DLA, Hajja Bintu Konto of the Labour Party and Patience Key of the YPP.
The publication follows months of party primaries, candidate nominations and political realignments as parties prepared for the election.
The three most prominent tickets, Tinubu-Shettima, Atiku-Amaechi and Obi-Kwankwaso, are expected to dominate much of the political conversation, but the final field also gives voters a wider range of parties and candidates to consider.
The 2027 contest is now moving from candidate selection into a more intense phase of campaigning, coalition-building and voter mobilisation.
For voters, the final list provides something more concrete than the months of political speculation that preceded it: the names and parties that will compete for Nigeria's presidency are now officially on the table.