Past Event

On February 25, 2023, Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, will hold its presidential election. The 2023 elections will be the seventh since the return to democratic rule in 1999. And unlike the previous elections, the 2023 elections will transcend the duopoly of contestation between the two leading parties, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the All-Progressive Congress (APC). This time, two other political parties, namely, Labor Party (LP) and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) are poised to upset the table in ways that could significantly affect the fortunes of the two main parties.

The 2023 elections in Nigeria have regional and continental implications. In a continent where democratic reversals are on the rise through a new wave of military coups, as have recently happened in Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Sudan, among others, the successful conduct of elections in Africa’s largest democracy could provide legitimacy for Nigeria to continue to lead the process of promoting the norms of democracy in accordance with the African Union’s Charter on Democracy, Election and Governance as well as the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

To answer these questions and in light of the importance of Nigeria’s election to Africa’s political landscape, Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), in collaboration with The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology will host a webinar under the IAS Umeme series. The webinar will bring together scholars, members of civil society, the media, and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s democratic project.