9 months in the past, Peter Obi was a member of Nigeria’s foremost opposition get together, the Folks’s Democratic Social gathering, and one of many 15 presidential aspirants cleared for its ticket. As a former state governor, he stood solidly within the ranks of the political institution.

On Wednesday, after a outstanding transformation into an outsider candidate operating for the little-known Labour Social gathering, he got here in third within the race for the presidency, in keeping with election officers.

Mr. Obi’s operating mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, vowed on Wednesday that the get together would contest the election outcomes, saying the poll was tainted by violence, voter intimidation and suppression. He mentioned his workforce would make its problem towards the declared victory of Bola Tinubu of the governing get together, by way of “all authorized and peaceable means.”

A former governor of southeastern Anambra state with a fame for frugality, Mr. Obi left the Folks’s Democratic Social gathering the day earlier than Atiku Abubakar, a former vice chairman who was certainly one of his foremost rivals, turned its presidential candidate.

A couple of days later, Mr. Obi received the Labour Social gathering ticket and commenced probably the most outstanding political campaigns in Nigerian historical past. It was pushed by his multitude of followers, together with well-known figures just like the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

On social media, his followers name themselves the Obidients.

Drawing on a deep effectively of anger on the governing get together — significantly among the many nation’s thousands and thousands of digitally-savvy youths — he related on points that mattered to them: unemployment, justice, preventing corruption and creating financial alternatives. Amid a wave of younger folks leaving or making an attempt to go away the nation, he gave hope that Nigeria might develop into a spot they may keep and thrive.

And although he’s 61, for a lot of voters he turned the youthful candidate — primarily in distinction with the 76-year-old Mr. Abubakar and the opposite front-runner, 70-year-old Bola Tinubu — an necessary consider a rustic the place the median age is eighteen.

In an interview with The New York Occasions earlier than the election, Mr. Obi mentioned that he would “aggressively” pursue the event of agriculture to drive Nigeria’s oil-dependent financial system. He mentioned he would additionally improve the nation’s manufacturing base and “declare struggle on power” — Nigeria has endemic power issues, regardless of being certainly one of Africa’s largest oil producers.

A high precedence was to unite a rustic that he mentioned was more and more divided alongside ethnic traces, and to maneuver previous the financial and safety shocks which have left many feeling despondent.

“What drives each nation is hope,” Mr. Obi mentioned.