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Will Nigeria’s two-party system tremble? Africa’s most populous nation has known its share of bruising campaigns, but never since the 1999 return to democracy has there been a run-off in the presidential election. Now, in a nation where the average age is 18, could voters turn away from big tent parties and candidates who are both in their seventies?
At 61, the third man is also a political veteran. But Peter Obi is running as a reformist insurgent and hopes to tap into the energy of the 2020 anti-corruption End SARS protest movement. Can he break the ethnic calculus that goes into electioneering in Nigeria? What do Obi and his rivals stand for?
And what about previous promises of reform like those of the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari? As always, poverty, the misspent spoils of oil revenues, the inability to offer answers to insurgencies and insecurity will be high on voters’ minds.
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Imen Mellaz.
