Nigeria’s top female presidential hopeful quits race

Abuja: Nigeria’s leading female presidential candidate Oby Ezekwesili on Thursday withdrew from the race, pledging to form an opposition coalition to defeat the ruling party.
Polls to elect a new president and parliament take place on February 16, while governorship and state assembly elections take place two weeks later.
A total of 73 candidates want the country’s top job but it is expected to be a contest between President Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ezekwesili, from the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, is a former education minister and ex-World Bank vice-president, who in recent years has campaigned for the release of Boko Haram kidnapping victims, including the Chibok schoolgirls.
The 55-year-old said she decided to pull out after “extensive consultations with leaders from various walks of life across the country over the past few days”.
She said she would now “focus on helping to build a veritable coalition to ensure a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the forthcoming elections”.