Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is challenging the incumbent Muhammadu Buhari, but there are dozens of other hopefuls.

"I find both of them worthy of absolute rejection," Soyinka is quoted as saying.

"My position is simply that it is time for a totally new direction," he told an audience in Lagos, the Guardian reports.

He said that activists had been meeting to come up with a consensus candidate who would be worthy of voting for.

Acknowledging that the vote for an alternative may not make much difference now he said it could "sow a seed... that will germinate eventually".