2027: Opposition Parties Unite, Begin Talks On Common Candidate
Leaders of six major opposition political parties on Monday, August 31, opened talks on a possible alliance ahead of the 2027 general election, agreeing to build a structured framework for cooperation while leaving the question of a joint presidential candidate for later.
The opposition parties converged on the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja for the first summit of Nigeria’s opposition political parties.
However, three prominent opposition figures, African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi, and Oyo State Governor and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) presidential candidate Seyi Makinde, were absent from the meeting.
Their absence notwithstanding, the summit attracted other presidential and vice-presidential candidates, including Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate Prince Adewole Adebayo, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate Donald Duke and APM vice-presidential candidate Lawal Musa Daura.
Members of the National Working Committees and Boards of Trustees of the participating parties also attended the meeting.
The summit was organised around proposals for greater opposition cooperation, with speakers repeatedly warning that fragmentation could again cost the opposition victory in 2027, as they argued happened in the 2023 presidential election.
Four-Year Transition Government Proposed
In opening remarks delivered on behalf of the G100, Mallam Salihu Moh. Lukman proposed a Government of National Competence based on a single four-year transition term.
“The Framework before you proposes 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 said the proposed government should be “secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter.”
Lukman insisted that any agreement reached by the opposition must be legally and politically binding rather than another declaration without consequences.
“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 added that any resolution “must be written, it must be witnessed, and it must have consequences”.
Opposition Blamed For 2023 Defeat
Lukman traced the history of opposition politics in the Fourth Republic, noting that opposition parties contested separately in 2003, 2007 and 2011 before achieving victory in 2015 after agreeing on rules for cooperation.
He argued that the lesson of 2015 was abandoned in 2023, when opposition votes were divided among several candidates.
“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 self-inflicted rather than the result of electoral conspiracy.
“Nobody stole thirteen million votes. We divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be,” he added.
He cited Kenya and Malaysia as examples of opposition forces overcoming long-ruling political parties through unity.
A thirty-nine-year ruling party was defeated in Kenya in 2002, while a sixty-one-year coalition government was ousted in Malaysia in 2018, he said.
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“In neither case did the opposition win because it had become more virtuous. It won because it had become one,” he said, describing the lesson as “arithmetical,” not moral.
Three Committees, Five Working Groups
Lukman disclosed that the proposed opposition framework would operate through three standing bodies.
They include a Central Leadership Committee comprising national chairmen, national secretaries and presidential and vice-presidential candidates; a Publicity and Communication Committee to coordinate joint messaging; and a Legal Committee to oversee legal strategy and provide advice on coalition matters.
The G100, he said, would remain a facilitator and observer rather than taking over the political authority of the parties.
Five working groups are also expected to be established, with each party nominating one representative to each group.
The groups will prepare working papers within four weeks 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 will subsequently be presented to a second summit for consideration and adoption.
Lukman stressed that Monday’s meeting was not intended to compel any party to dissolve or merge, nor was it designed to force presidential candidates to withdraw.
“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.
He explained that the immediate objective was to establish “the table” before negotiating “the seats” around it.
Lawmakers Back Opposition Alliance
Leading the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives to the summit, its leader, Hon. Fred Agbedi, urged opposition parties to put aside personal ambitions and reproduce the political cooperation that helped the APC defeat the then-ruling PDP in 2015.
Agbedi said the Minority Caucus had decided to work with the G100 to help opposition parties coordinate their ambitions ahead of 2027.
“In the spirit of creating a viable opposition and ensuring that we win collectively the 2027 election, the Minority Caucus of the House of Reps decided that we partner with the G100 to see how opposition parties can come together, streamline our ambitions, and ensure that we take this government out,” he said.
He warned that Nigeria’s current leadership operated on the belief that “all is fair in politics” and urged opposition leaders to take the political environment seriously.
Agbedi also cautioned against repeating the fragmentation of 2023.
“What will it benefit us when we are divided and scattered, and we go into an election, and we come back to collate the millions of votes we had divided amongst ourselves that could not give us victory? It will be like an exercise in futility, and we pray that we shouldn’t in 2027 go back to that,” he said.
Duke Offers To Step Aside
PRP presidential candidate Donald Duke said he was prepared to sacrifice his personal ambition if the opposition parties eventually agreed on another candidate.
He said political egos had repeatedly undermined opposition efforts to win elections and urged leaders to place the broader national interest above individual ambitions.
“If we think we can go it all alone, then we will fail”, he declared.
Parties Urge Unity
Speaking for the ADC, its National Vice Chairman for the South-South, Usani Uguru Usani, who led members of the party’s NWC to the summit, expressed confidence in the coalition effort.
He said opposition parties were now assessing the political environment based on performance rather than assumptions, unlike in 2023.
Usani, however, warned against internal attacks among opposition parties.
“There is something that is happening among the opposition people or party. We seem to be attacking ourselves much more than we attack a common enemy, which is not correct,” he said.
APM National Chairman Yusuf Mamman Dantalle described the meeting as a significant moment in Nigeria’s political history and called on leaders to put aside personal and partisan interests.
“For us to achieve this will be remembered for what we do today, that we have the opportunity, or what we refuse to do today, that we have the opportunity,” he said.
He pledged his party’s full commitment to “the project Nigeria.”
Representing the Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the PDP, its Board of Trustees Secretary, Dr Babangida Aliyu, praised the G100 initiative and said such cooperation had been lacking in Nigeria’s political process.
He blamed personal ambition and pecuniary interests for many of the country’s governance problems and urged the coalition to replicate its meetings at the state and local government levels.
“We are not here to pick or to nominate or to tell other parties to not run. Now we are going to lay the foundation that when the time comes, we should be able to say this is the way to go,” he said.
PRP National Chairman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, described the summit as historic and urged the presidential and vice-presidential candidates present to recognise the expectations surrounding the opposition effort.
“Look back, see how serious Nigerians are watching this, because two things are going on right now,” he said.
He said all six parties represented at the summit faced what he described as “an existential threat” through litigation, but insisted that the coalition would continue.
“Our back is against the wall, but we’ll fight back. In 2027, we will together remove this government and put the Nigerian nation in a different trajectory,” he said.
SDP National Chairman, Prof. Sadiq Gombe, said Nigerian voters had repeatedly shown their willingness to support good governance.
He cited the 2023 presidential election, where he said the three leading opposition candidates jointly secured about two-thirds of the votes, as well as the Osun State election, which he said demonstrated that heavy deployment of security and financial resources by the ruling party could not determine electoral outcomes.
He pledged the SDP’s commitment to the coalition process “irrespective of whatever” and called on the parties to honour previous unity agreements.
NDC National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, speaking on behalf of his party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, commended the organisers and expressed support for the coalition initiative.
He described the effort as necessary at a time when the country was “in a comatose” state under the current leadership.
“It is a good thing when opposition political parties that are not pretending, but are convinced that our country is in a comatose… think through and establish a pathway to rescue this nation,” he said.
Opposition Adopts Joint Communiqué
At the end of the summit, the six parties adopted a Joint Communiqué committing themselves to a structured negotiation process on opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 election.
They formally established the Central Leadership Committee, Publicity and Communication Committee and Legal Committee proposed by the G100.
The parties also agreed to establish the five working groups, which are expected to produce their respective documents within four weeks.
The documents will cover democratic renewal, a single-term transition government, a national reform programme, opposition unity and the process for selecting a common presidential candidate.
The proposals will be presented at a second summit, with the date and venue to be determined by the Central Leadership Committee.
The communiqué also called on the United States government to ensure the timely and lawful disclosure of all non-exempt official records concerning President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that bear on legitimate public interest.
The demand relates to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act suit before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The parties, however, clarified that the request did not presume the contents of any undisclosed records or amount to a finding of wrongdoing.
They also resolved to formally communicate their position to the ECOWAS Commission.
The communiqué reaffirmed that the G100 would remain strictly a facilitator and observer and would not assume the authority of the political parties.
The summit marks an early attempt by opposition forces to build a common platform ahead of 2027, although the absence of some of the coalition’s most prominent presidential contenders leaves unresolved the central question of whether the parties can ultimately agree on a single candidate.