The 2023 Kogi State gubernatorial election was held on 11 November 2023 to elect the Governor of Kogi State.^[1] Incumbent APC Governor Yahaya Bello was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third term in office. The primaries were scheduled for between 27 March and 17 April 2022.

APC candidate and Auditor-General for Local Governments in Kogi State, Ahmed Usman Ododo, defeated SDP candidate Murtala Ajaka by 187,185 votes.^[2]

The Governor of Kogi State is 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 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.

Kogi State is a diverse state in the North Central with a large number of mineral resources but facing an underdeveloped agricultural sector, deforestation, and low vaccination rates.

Politically, the state's early 2019 elections were described by a swing towards the APC as the party was mainly successful, unseating almost all PDP senators and house members to sweep most House of Representatives and two senate seats as the state was won by APC presidential nominee Muhammadu Buhari with over 54%. The House of Assembly election also was a win for the APC as the party won every seat in the assembly. The November election ended similarly with Bello winning election to a second term and the APC gained a senate seat in a rerun election; however, both elections were riddled with irregularities and electoral violence.

In Bello's second inaugural address in 2020, he declared that his second term would highlight agricultural development, increasing employment, and improving the state's revenue.^[3] Performance-wise, Bello was commended for gender inclusion in his cabinet^[4] but his term was immensely controversial as he was criticized for inciting electoral violence,^[5] autocratic actions,^[6] lies about COVID-19 and vaccines,^{[7][8][9][10]} and further corruption allegations.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

The primaries, along with any potential challenges to primary results, will take place between 27 March and 17 April 2022.^[1] While no formal zoning agreement is in place, groups from Kogi West Senatorial District (specifically some groups representing the Okun people) have called for the governorship to be zoned to their district with the justification of no elected governor having come from Kogi West beforehand.^[16][17] On the other hand, groups from Kogi Central Senatorial District (specifically some groups representing the Ebira people) are pushing for the office to be retained by their district by claiming that Kogi East Senatorial District held the office for over four terms and thus Kogi Central should as well.^[18][19][20]

• 2023 Nigerian elections
• 2023 Nigerian gubernatorial elections