The former military ruler, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, won the presidential nomination of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday, becoming the frontrunner to lead Nigeria's first elected government in 15 years.
Gen Obasanjo (61) is the only one of Nigeria's long series of ruling generals who turned the country over to an elected civilian government.
The PDP swept recent local and state elections in the oil-producing west African country of at least 108 million people, so its candidate is strongly placed for the brief campaign leading to the February 27th presidential vote.
The rival All Peoples' Party (APP) was torn by dissent yesterday when backstage leaders railroaded a little-known former state governor, Mr Ogbonnaya Onu, past convention delegates as the chosen candidate. Fist fights broke out as delegates chanted "We want to vote" and "We will not agree."
At the PDP convention in the hilly town of Jos, Gen Obasanjo won nearly 68 per cent of votes from 2,439 delegates.
"My joy knows no bounds," Gen Obasanjo declared in his acceptance speech. "I will devote all my energy and all the powers available to me to the service of Nigeria and humanity."
Standing close behind him was Mr Alex Ekwueme, the former civilian vice-president who came second in the race for the PDP candidacy. Mr Ekwueme served in the government to which Mr Obasanjo handed power in 1979.
Yesterday was the deadline for all three of Nigeria's parties to submit the names of their presidential contenders.
The third party is the Alliance for Democracy or AD, a south-western regional party which has formed an electoral pact with the All Peoples' Party.
Under the pact, Mr Onu must defeat the AD candidate, former finance minister Mr Olu Falae, for the two parties' joint nomination.
Ideology has not been an important factor for any of the parties, which all set out vague plans to improve living standards after 15 years of military misrule that impoverished most Nigerians.
Much more important are ethnic allegiances and the open use of money, which have bedevilled Nigerian politics and given soldiers the excuse for holding on to power for all but 10 years since independence from Britain in 1960.
Gen Obasanjo, an ethnic Yoruba from south-west Nigeria, enjoys the backing of many in the Hausa-speaking north which has dominated Nigeria for decades. He also has the support of many retired and serving military officers.
But others accuse him of being a stooge of the army and point to the presence of retired generals in the shadows of his vast and expensive campaign, as evidence that he will do nothing to pursue those who plundered the treasury.
The support of the ethnic Ibo south-east is also put in question by the defeat of Mr Ekwueme, who was seen by many as their best chance of ruling Nigeria since losing a civil war to secede in 1970.