Nigeria’s presidential race goes down to the wire

If presidential electionsAPC were won by advertising, Bola Tinubu of the incumbent All Progressives Congress () party would win Nigeria’s by a landslide. His face grins relentlessly over all corners of the country (pictured). “Posters don’t vote,” quips a member of the campaign team for , the candidate of a rival minor party who unexpectedly leads the polls in what is usually a two-horse race.The contest is close, chaotic and crucial to the future of Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy. Nigerians, who will vote on February 25th, are poorer today than eight years ago. Much of the blame falls on the outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, who has during his eight years in office. Fully 89% of Nigerians think the country is heading in the wrong direction, according to Afrobarometer, a pollster. On his watch the economy has stagnated and violence has spread: last year at least 10,000 people were killed by criminal gangs, terrorists or the army. A country that once exported security through peacekeeping missions now exports trouble, destabilising neighbours.