CAMPAIGNS for the January 16 presidential election will officially kick off on Wednesday, August 19, in line with the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as major political parties appear reluctant to immediately hit the campaign trail.
News Point Nigeria reports that the survey indicated that leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), are not yet ready to go on the stump, while smaller parties are also yet to fully mobilise for the five-month campaign window.
Campaigns for National Assembly seats will also commence on Wednesday, with the legislative elections scheduled to hold on the same day as the presidential poll.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC is being challenged by Peter Obi of the NDC, Atiku Abubakar of the ADC and 16 other presidential candidates.
“We are not ready to be on the move for five months. It is expensive, energy-sapping and laborious,” a top official of one of the leading parties said last night.
So far, none of the major parties has formally constituted campaign committees or released detailed schedules of activities for the campaigns.
The campaign for the presidential and National Assembly elections is the sixth item on the timetable and schedule of activities released by the Commission.
The commencement is in line with Section 98(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which provides that campaigns by every political party shall commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours before the election.
Campaigns for the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for February 6 next year are expected to commence on September 9.
The parties have until August 22 to substitute any candidate who withdraws from the contest, in line with Section 31 of the Electoral Act.
According to INEC, political parties have until August 29 to submit candidates’ nomination forms, Forms 13A to E, in accordance with Section 30(1).
The final list of nominated candidates is expected to be published by the Commission on September 12, in accordance with Section 32(1), which provides for publication at least 60 days before the election.
A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of a major opposition party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said party leaders were not in a hurry to commence campaigns.
He said, “We have a five-month window. The party leaders are planning a meeting for the end of the month to discuss the campaign plan.”
A governorship candidate on the platform of the APC, who said campaigns require extensive planning, also noted that the long period allotted to political campaigns could induce stress.
“Five months for campaigns? It will overstretch us,” he said.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, told reporters that plans were underway to unveil a detailed nationwide campaign programme later in the month.
He clarified that while August 19 marks the legal commencement of the campaign window, it does not mean that political parties are required to organise rallies immediately.
Morka stressed, “August 19 is the date fixed by INEC for all parties to start the presidential and National Assembly campaign.
“There is no law that we must start on that day. The only thing is, no political party is permitted to start ahead of the day.”
Morka, who spoke with reporters after the National Working Committee meeting yesterday at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said the ruling party was deliberately structuring its strategy before hitting the campaign trail.
He said the APC would consult widely and plan properly before embarking on its campaign journey.
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Abdulrahman Mohammed, told a delegation from the International Republican Institute that the party was ready for the elections.
He said, “We are PDP, and we belong to the people of Nigeria, and our yearning and aspiration is to give responsible leadership to the electorate.
“That is why, for over 20-something years, the party remained democratic, and is in all the 36 states, FCT and 774 local governments of Nigeria. I want to assure you that the PDP is fully ready for the election.”
The Labour Party (LP), meanwhile, said it would leverage its relationship with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to mobilise voters and strengthen its grassroots campaign.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Asogwa, said the LP was prepared to face the electorate, adding that it had developed “a formidable organisational structure, an energised membership base, and a credible presidential candidate.”
He also described the party’s governorship and House of Assembly candidates as people of integrity and acceptability, saying their credibility would attract votes.
Asogwa said the LP’s major advantage lies in its institutional relationship with organised labour.
He added, “As we have consistently maintained, the Labour Party is today the most structured political party in Nigeria.
“The Party is unique among all political parties because the NLC and the TUC are its institutional members. There is hardly any polling unit, ward, local government or community in Nigeria that does not have a serving or retired civil servant.
“No other political party, including the APC, can genuinely boast of such an extensive nationwide structure.
“We never harnessed this potential in the past, but today the present leadership of the Party has gone to marry the Labour Unions in a manner never seen before,” he said.
He said the party would now deploy the strength of the labour unions and its grassroots network to sell its candidates and policies to Nigerians.
Asogwa also expressed optimism that the electoral body would publish the names of the LP’s governorship and House of Assembly candidates.
He said the party had complied with INEC’s deadline by uploading the names of its candidates before the closure of the submission window.
Asogwa added, “We are hopeful that all our candidates for governorship and state Houses of Assembly will be published by the electoral body, just as they did with our Presidential and National Assembly candidates.
“Gladly, we were able to beat the deadline set by the Commission by ensuring all our candidates’ names were uploaded before the closure of the window.”