{"id":49064,"date":"2026-10-26T15:15:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49064"},"modified":"2026-10-26T15:15:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:15:37","slug":"official-campaign-trail-opens-in-nigeria-as-president-launches-re-election-bid","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/official-campaign-trail-opens-in-nigeria-as-president-launches-re-election-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Official campaign trail opens in Nigeria as President launches re-election bid \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The official campaign period for Nigeria&#8217;s upcoming presidential election has formally opened, with incumbent President Bola Tinubu launching his bid for a second term during a major rally in the northern city of Kaduna.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Addressing supporters in Kaduna, Tinubu pledged to press ahead with his administration&#8217;s structural economic reforms and nationwide infrastructure development projects. However, opposition parties are preparing to center their campaign strategies on the sharp rise in the cost of living and widespread economic hardships facing Nigerian households.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With less than three months remaining before the country heads to the polls on January 16,2027, civil society analysts are weighing in on the opening salvo of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview with journalist Pamela Koumba, Pan-African civil society member Gloria Mengu\u00e9 offered an assessment of Tinubu&#8217;s decision to kick off his campaign in the north. According to Mengu\u00e9, holding the inaugural rally in Kaduna represents a strategic move to secure critical northern voting blocs, particularly as public debate intensifies over the immediate impact of the government&#8217;s fiscal policies on ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43267,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-49064","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nigeria campaign season opens ahead of presidential election","published_date":"2026-10-26 15:15:01","news_description":"Nigeria campaign season opens ahead of presidential election","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49066,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49064\/revisions\/49066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}