Presidential Nomination Process for Nigeria’s 2023 Election: A Study of PDP and APC

Developing nations of the world including Nigeria have been experiencing series of crises in their democratization processes. It is identified that conducting hitch free elections is one of the major problems encountered by these countries. Political parties in Nigeria, over the years, have faced crisis of nomination of candidates for national and sub-national elections. This has had adverse effect on the credibility of elections. Prelude to the 2023 general election, major political parties in Nigeria have to contend with challenges of nominating their presidential candidates. It is against this backdrop that this study is carried out. Its objective is to examine the processes of nomination of presidential candidates for the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria with particular reference to People Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC. The study adopts primary and secondary sources of data collection using unstructured interview, textbooks, journals, internet and other relevant materials as instruments. Theory of Political Participation and Rational Choice theory are adopted as theoretical frameworks which serve as foundation upon which the arguments/discussions in the study are based. The study finds that there are rancor and acrimonies in the process of nominating the presidential candidates of the two parties for the 2023 elections. The study identifies ethnicity, religion, region, monetary inducement, and intra-party conflict as the major contentious issues in the process of nominating the Presidential candidates in the two political parties. The study in its conclusion opines that adherence to party constitution, justice, fairness equity among party members would minimize rancorous party primaries in Nigeria