The founder of the #Bringbackourgirls campaign is reportedly set to challenge Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming crunch polls.
The #BringBackourGirls campaign was formed to help free the 276 girls kidnapped from Chibok in northern Nigeria in 2014.
According to BBC, the former education minister and World Bank vice president Oby Ezekwesili was endorsed over the weekend by the opposition Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) as its presidential candidate, becoming the "most prominent" Nigerian woman to run for the presidency in the country's 2019 polls.
The 55-year-old was reportedly gunning for the youth vote which made up the majority of voters in the west African country.
'Unsustainable failure'
A report by Punch.com quoted the two-time minister and activist as saying that she wanted to bring change to the country as it was "retrogressing under the current administration".
She said that Nigeria could not afford to continue under an atmosphere of "unsustainable failure".
Ezekwesili criticised Buhari’s administration, saying the country was heading towards "total economic collapse".
She would also face off with another political heavyweight former vice president Atiku Abubakar from the main opposition the People's Democratic Party (PDP), said an AFP report.
Abubakar came from the Muslim-majority north, and his nomination followed an unwritten rule in Nigeria that the presidency should alternate every two terms between a candidate from the north and south.
Both Buhari’s All Progressive Party and the PDP have produced all of the country's presidents since the end of military rule in 1999.
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