Nigeria’s leading opposition politicians united in order to field one candidate to face President Bola Tinubu in January’s hotly contested general election. But, with only nine months until the poll in one of Africa’s biggest economies, it remains unclear who the main opposition candidate will be, or how and when they will be selected.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has been defeated in three elections, as well as Peter Obi, who rallied the youth vote in the most recent 2023 poll before ultimately falling short, agreed to the pact during a meeting in a town near Lagos over the weekend. The men, who came second and third in the last election and, between them, won an estimated 54% of the popular vote, are now members of the same African Democratic Congress political party, despite having run separately in the last poll.

It was billed as a conference of all opposition parties but media reports suggested that Obi, who remains popular with young voters and in the southeast, could be enticed out of the pact to run on a distinct platform.