The race for the 2023 Nigerian Presidential election is in place with multiple parties competing for votes. Nigeria has a multi-party system with two to three strong parties typically running across the political spectrum for national elections. The current three strongest parties are the People's Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressive Party (APC) and Labour Party (LP). The focus for the rest of this article is the PDP party, its presidential candidate, and its expected policies.

Presidential candidate Atiku Abuakar, was born in 1946 in Jada, Adamwa state. Since then he has garnered an extensive career in both the business and political fields. After his time at  University he began working for the Nigeria Customs service where he rose to the position of Deputy Director before venturing into the world of politics. In 1999 he served as the vice president of Nigeria under Obsanjo of the PDP party - clearly he is experienced in the seat he is running for. 2023 is not Abuakar’s first time running for presidency having also ran in 2019 and four times before that. On the negative side, allegations of corruption against Abuaka during his vice presidency and his prior failures to effectively represent the PDP party could pose a danger to his general popularity in the upcoming election. Abuaka’s running mate is the Govener of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa. He was re-elected as governor in 2019 and has been in office since 2015 but prior to this he was a senator representing the Delta North Senatorial District. 

The PDP party has a broad political base due to its policies which tend to fall on the centre right of the political spectrum. Their motto is ‘justice to the people’ and the slogan is ‘PDP- power to the people’. The party has a long history of success and won each presidential election between 1999 and 2011. Additionally, the party has an unofficial policy wherein presidential candidates from the largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south alternate. By the time the 2015 elections came around the party was suffering from infighting which put it in a far weaker position than in previous years, therefore, Abuakar's cabinet will have a better chance of reclaiming the 2023 presidency if they show signs of being cohesive 

The official PDP manifesto has not yet been made available to the public as of this writing, however, from their history in office we can see their policy stances. They frequently retain a neoliberal stance when it comes to economic matters, pushing for a market-based economy powered by small and medium-sized businesses with limited government regulation.  They do, however, tend to hold more conservative views when it comes to social issues like same-sex relations. In terms of poverty and welfare they have a history of adopting a leftest stance with former president Obasanjo launching Nigeria’s first National Health Insurance Schemes. In sum, the PDP tends to adopt broad policies across the poltical spectrum and the current party under Abuakar will likely follow this path.