2027 Presidential: the field so far
Eight candidates have declared or been nominated for the 2027 presidential election as of May 2026. Three of the four biggest opposition parties from 2023 have already lost their presidential candidates to new vehicles. Two of those candidates, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, who ran against each other in 2023, are now on the same party.
Here is the field as it stands, grounded in sourced declarations.
2023 presidential result · now running as
Source: INEC 2023 certified presidential results
Bola Tinubu (APC)
Tinubu formally declared on 18 April 2026, when South-East APC governors adopted him as the consensus presidential candidate. The re-election infrastructure had been visible for months before that.
Source: TheCable, 18 Apr 2026 ↗
Atiku Abubakar (ADC)
Atiku left the PDP after 2023 and joined the ADC. He was screened by the ADC presidential screening committee on 20 May 2026. His 2023 campaign pulled 6.98 million votes (29%) on the PDP ticket. That coalition does not automatically transfer to a party with no existing national machinery.
Peter Obi (NDC)
Obi left the Labour Party and declared for the NDC on 20 May 2026. His 2023 campaign drew 6.1 million votes (25%) and built the Obidient movement. Whether that support follows him to a third party is the central question of his 2027 campaign.
Source: This Day, 20 May 2026 ↗
Rabiu Kwankwaso (NDC)
Kwankwaso also left the NNPP for the NDC, declaring on 4 May 2026. He and Obi are now running mates in the same party, having been opponents in 2023. Kwankwaso's 2023 result (1.5M votes, 6.2%) was almost entirely concentrated in Kano and the North-West.
The wider field
The ADC has attracted three additional declarations alongside Atiku: former APC governor Nasir El-Rufai, former transport minister Rotimi Amaechi, and ADC is screening all three for the same primary. Oyo governor Seyi Makinde declared on the APM platform on 14 May 2026. Adewole Adebayo, who won 80,267 votes on the SDP ticket in 2023, was re-nominated by the SDP on 9 May 2026.
Full field · 2027 presidential · as of May 2026
We will update this tracker as declarations and party primaries develop. Every candidate listed has a profile page with sourced status history.
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