The G100 has called for the establishment of a Government of National Competence operating under a single, four-year transition term as part of efforts to strengthen cooperation among Nigeria’s opposition parties ahead of future elections.
The proposal was presented by Mallam Salihu Moh. Lukman in his opening remarks on behalf of the G100 at the Summit of Nigeria’s Opposition Political Parties held on Monday at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
The summit brought together representatives of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), as well as presidential and vice-presidential candidates and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.
At the commencement of the meeting, the presidential candidates of the SDP, Prince Adebayo Adewole, and the PRP, Donald Duke, as well as the APM vice-presidential candidate, Lawal Daura, were present. The ADC candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the NDC candidate, Peter Obi, were still expected at the venue.
Lukman said the proposed arrangement would be founded on competence, integrity, inclusion and equitable representation for all participating parties, with the transition guided by a clearly defined four-year national reset programme.
“The Framework before you propose something more demanding than a merger of ambitions: a Government of National Competence, built on competence, integrity, national inclusion, and fair representation of every party that contributes to the effort,” he said.
He added that the arrangement should be “secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter.”
Lukman stressed that any agreement reached by the parties must have mechanisms capable of compelling compliance, rather than relying solely on political promises.
“We want to underline the word ‘enforceable.’ This gathering does not need more sincerity. Nigerian politics has never suffered from a shortage of sincere promises. What it has suffered from is promises that nobody could enforce when the person who made them changed his/her mind,” he said.
He maintained that any eventual agreement “must be written, it must be witnessed, and it must have consequences.”
Reflecting on the opposition’s electoral history since 1999, Lukman said opposition parties went into the 2003, 2007 and 2011 presidential elections separately before their eventual coordination helped produce victory in 2015.
He said the lack of similar coordination in 2023 resulted in opposition votes being divided among different candidates, despite their combined support exceeding that of the eventual winner.
“The winner took just under nine million votes. One opposition candidate took close to seven million. Another took just over six million. Thirteen million votes on one side of the argument, under nine million on the other. And the side with fewer votes formed the government, lawfully, constitutionally, and entirely predictably,” he said.
Lukman described the 2023 outcome as a consequence of the opposition’s own divisions rather than the result of a conspiracy.
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Under the proposed coalition framework, three permanent bodies would be created. They are a Central Leadership Committee, comprising national chairmen, national secretaries and presidential and vice-presidential candidates; a Publicity and Communication Committee to coordinate joint communication; and a Legal Committee responsible for legal strategy and advice.
The G100, he explained, would serve only as facilitators and observers within the proposed structures, subject to the approval of the participating parties.
Five Working Groups, with one representative from each participating party, are also expected to prepare working documents within four weeks. The documents will focus on a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, a Single-Term Transition Charter, a National Reform Programme, a Framework for Opposition Unity and a Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate.
The proposals would subsequently be submitted to a Second Summit for consideration and adoption.
Lukman also made clear that the Abuja meeting was not intended to compel any party to dissolve or merge, nor was it designed to produce a presidential candidate immediately.
“It is not asking any party to dissolve. It is not asking any party to disappear into another party. It is not asking any candidate to stand down this morning… That question is not on the agenda of this Summit, and any report that says otherwise will be wrong,” he said.
According to him, the immediate objective was to establish a framework within which the parties could negotiate their respective interests later.
He urged participants to be open about their positions and avoid placing personal or party interests ahead of the coalition-building process.
“A hard line declared this morning is a problem that can be solved between now and the Second Summit. A hard line concealed this morning is a coalition that collapses in October, and that one will collapse in public too, only later, and at far greater cost to everybody in this room,” he said.
Lukman said the G100, in collaboration with the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, organised the summit without endorsing any political party or candidate.
“We are not promoting any candidate, no preference among the six parties in this hall, and nothing to gain from one of you rather than another.
Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published on August 2: that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government,” he said.
He said the need for a credible opposition was underscored by the difficulties facing ordinary Nigerians, citing the experience of a woman in Kaduna who withdrew her child from school because of rising fees, a farmer in Benue who had been displaced from his land, and a graduate in Aba who had stopped searching for employment.
“They are entitled to something, and it is this: a real choice, presented by serious people, capable of governing. That is all a democratic opposition owes its country, and it is not a small debt,” he said.