Nigerians Cast Ballots In The Most Uncertain Election In Years.

On Saturday, Nigerians will elect a new leader to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in a historic contest between the three front-runners for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation.

Nigeria still confronts significant difficulties eight years after Buhari took office, including assaults by jihadists and separatists, a slow economy, and rising poverty, leaving many Nigerians anxious for change.

As coups in Mali and Burkina Faso undermined West Africa’s democracy and Islamic terrorism extended north of Nigeria’s Gulf of Guinea neighbors, the election on February 25 will be widely observed.

Afrobeats-produced international music artists Burna Boy and Wizkid, as well as Nollywood, the second-largest movie industry in the world, may have helped Nigeria get international attention.

Yet, the biggest economy and top oil producer in Africa will be handed a perplexing array of security and financial issues by the continent’s new leader.

Buhari’s governing The All Progressives Congress, or APC, is running 70-year-old Bola Tinubu, a longtime kingmaker who declares, “It is my turn,” citing his accomplishments as governor of Lagos.

Atiku Abubakar, 76, a candidate for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), boasts of his commercial savvy to “save” Nigeria and is making his sixth attempt to win the presidential mansion at Aso Rock.

The Labour Party’s Peter Obi, a surprising third contender, has overthrown the APC and PDP’s dominance by appealing to younger people, making this election the most uncertain in recent memory and maybe even necessitating a run-off for the first time since the end of military rule in 1999.