Nigerian politician Peter Obi will run for president in the West African nation’s January elections, ensuring that the opposition to incumbent Bola Tinubu will once again be fragmented.

Obi, second runner-up in the 2023 ballot narrowly won by Tinubu, was ratified late on Saturday as the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress party. In his acceptance speech, he pledged to tackle insecurity, double health insurance coverage, and “invest heavily in schools, teachers, technology, and vocational training.”

Obi will face Tinubu in the January 16 election as well as former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who was the first runner-up in 2023 and with whom Obi had earlier planned to campaign as a unified coalition. Abubakar, 79, was picked on Thursday as flag-bearer for the African Democratic Congress, the country’s main opposition party, in what will be his seventh presidential run.

Between them, Obi and Abubakar won 54 per cent of the vote in the last election compared with 36 per cent for Tinubu, who, with opposition forces now split, is widely viewed as the front runner to win a second term.

Obi, 64, is popular among Nigeria’s urban and younger voters and has a campaign focused on reducing poverty through stronger economic growth, emphasising institutional reform, youth empowerment, and reviving agriculture.

He immediately announced Rabiu Kwankwaso, who finished fourth in the 2023 presidential election, as his running mate for 2027. Kwankwaso is a well-known political figure in the northern state of Kano, which could help Obi pick up votes there.