The 2023 Jigawa State gubernatorial election took place on 18 March 2023, to elect the Governor of Jigawa State, concurrent with elections to the Jigawa State House of Assembly as well as twenty-seven other gubernatorial elections and elections to all other state houses of assembly.^[1][2] The election—which was postponed from its original 11 March date—was later scheduled to hold three weeks after the presidential election and National Assembly elections.^[3] Incumbent APC Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third term.

Party primaries were scheduled for between 4 April and 9 June 2022 with the Peoples Democratic Party nominating Mustapha Sule Lamido—businessman and son of former Governor Sule Lamido—on 25 May while the All Progressives Congress nominated Deputy Governor Umar Namadi on 26 May and the smaller New Nigeria Peoples Party nominated former commissioner Aminu Ibrahim Ringim unopposed on 6 June.^[4][5][6]

The Governor of Jigawa State was elected using a modified two-round system. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive the plurality of the vote and over 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of state local government areas. If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a plurality of votes in the highest number of local government areas.

Jigawa State is a northwestern state mainly inhabited by ethnic Hausas and Fulanis. It has a growing economy but is facing an underdeveloped agricultural sector, desertification, and low education rates.

Politically, the 2019 elections confirmed the state's status as one of the most staunchly APC states in the nation as both Buhari and Abubakar won the state by wide margins and every single legislative seat on the senatorial, House of Representatives, and House of Assembly levels were carried by APC nominees. At the beginning of his term, Abubakar said his administration would focus on youth empowerment, human development, and social services.^[7] In terms of his performance, Abubakar was praised for his financial prudence but was criticized for frequent absences from Dutse and a lack of government transparency along with going on vacation amid deadly floods in September 2022.^[8][9][10]

The primaries, along with any potential challenges to primary results, were to take place between 4 April and 3 June 2022 but the deadline was extended to 9 June.^[2][11] According to some groups from the state's northeastern senatorial district, an informal zoning gentlemen's agreement sets the North-East to produce the next governor as since the state's creation in 1991, all Jigawa governors have come from either the South-West or North-West senatorial districts.^[12] While none of the major parties formally zoned their nominations, the APC nominated a northeasterner while the NNPP and PDP did not.

After the primaries, pundits noted the contrast between Namadi, who was hand-picked by outgoing Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, and Lamido—who was backed by his father, former Governor Sule Lamido. For Namadi, observers focused on the inability for incumbent Jigawa governors to get their hand-picked successors to succeed them while Lamido's lack of governing experience was also mentioned. Thus the race was framed as a potential enthronement of Abubakar as a political godfather if Namadi won or the entrenchment of a political dynasty if Lamido won.^[42]

By 2023, attention largely switched to the presidential election on 25 February. In the election, Jigawa State narrowly voted for Bola Tinubu (APC); Tinubu won 45.8% of the vote, beating the 42.0% of Atiku Abubakar (PDP) and the 10.7% of Rabiu Kwankwaso (NNPP). Although the close result was unsurprising as projections had noted a close race, the totals led to increased attention on the gubernatorial race as it was a much slimmer APC margin of victory than in recent previous elections. Gubernatorial campaign analysis from after the presidential election noted the role of the Lamido family in the state PDP's renewal while observing increasingly tense regional dynamics between emirate communities. Pundits also observed that the boost of APC incumbency had been counteracted by largescale internal disunity in the state APC.^[43][44] Nevertheless, the EiE-SBM forecast projected Namadi to win based on the state's "settled" political dynamics.^[45]

• 2023 Nigerian elections
• 2023 Nigerian gubernatorial elections