Nigeria: Tinubu launches reelection bid amid economic woes
President Bola Tinubu formally launched his campaign for a second term on Saturday in the northern city of Kaduna, where he sought to convince voters that painful economic reforms are beginning to pay off despite a lingering cost-of-living crisis.
Tinubu, 74, faces a contest ahead of a January 16 election that is likely to be dominated by the economy and security. His main challengers include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, who finished second and third respectively in 2023.
By midday, thousands of supporters of the president’s All Progressives Congress party had filled much of the 10,000-capacity Ranchers Bees Stadium, with more arriving as the rally got underway.
Thank you for this massive showing up. It is a promise. Come 2027, January 16, you must go out massively and elect me again.
Since taking office in 2023, Tinubu has scrapped fuel subsidies, devalued the naira and introduced other reforms credited with improving public finances, foreign reserves and investor sentiment. But the measures have also fuelled Nigeria’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Petrol prices rose to about 1,400 naira ($1.05) a litre in Lagos and Abuja in September and as much as 1,500 naira in parts of northern Nigeria, adding to pressure on household budgets.
In his speech Saturday, Tinubu repeated his pledge that his second term would see the reforms bear fruit. “The fuel subsidy is in our past,” Tinubu told a packed stadium, where thousands of supporters had been playing music and waving flags with the president’s face since early morning.
“There is that promise of a better tomorrow,” said Tinubu, wearing flowing robes printed with his red, white, blue and green All Progressives Congress party logo.
But the 74-year-old Tinubu kept his speech short, leaving the stage after only about 10 minutes. With the APC holding 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 powerful governorships, Tinubu, known as a skilled political operator, has a vast political machine at his disposal. The opposition is also divided along similar lines as in 2023, when Tinubu won with just 36.6 percent of the vote.