The presidential candidates of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar; the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi; and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde, were notably absent on Monday as Nigeria’s major opposition forces converged at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja to map out a strategy for the 2027 general elections.
Although the three heavyweights were absent, the summit was not short of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, with Prince Adewole Adebayo of the SDP, Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and the Allied Peoples Movement’s (APM) vice presidential candidate, Lawal Musa Daura, present alongside National Working Committee (NWC) and some Board of Trustees (BoT) members of the participating parties.
In opening remarks delivered on behalf of the G100, Mallam Salihu Moh. Lukman, proposed a Government of National Competence anchored on a single four-year transition term, describing it as central to the broader framework being canvassed for opposition cooperation.
“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, adding that such a government should be “secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter.”
He stressed that any agreement reached at the summit must be binding rather than symbolic.
“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, insisting that any resolution “must be written, it must be witnessed, and it must have consequences”.
Tracing the history of opposition politics in the Fourth Republic, Lukman recalled that the opposition contested the presidency divided in 2003, 2007 and 2011, but achieved victory in 2015 after parties agreed on rules of engagement ahead of determining candidates.
He said that discipline was abandoned in 2023, when opposition votes were split among candidates who jointly polled more than 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, describing the outcome as self-inflicted rather than the product of any 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 similar precedents abroad, noting that a thirty-nine-year ruling party was removed in Kenya in 2002, and a sixty-one-year coalition government was ousted in Malaysia in 2018, in both cases by opposition forces that chose unity over fragmentation.
“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.
On the architecture for cooperation, Lukman disclosed that three standing coalition bodies are being proposed: a Central Leadership Committee comprising national chairmen, national secretaries, and presidential and vice-presidential candidates, to provide political direction; a Publicity and Communication Committee to coordinate joint messaging; and a Legal Committee to handle legal strategy and coalition-related advice, with the G100 participating only as facilitators and observers.
He further disclosed that five Working Groups, each comprising one representative from every participating party, are to produce 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, all to be presented to a Second Summit for adoption.
He clarified that the summit was not asking any party to dissolve, merge or produce a presidential candidate on the day.
“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, explaining that what was being sought was authorization to build “the table” before negotiating “the seats” around it.
Leading the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives to the summit, its Leader, Hon. Fred Agbedi, urged opposition leaders to close ranks and replicate the electoral success recorded by the then-opposition All Progressives Congress APC in 2015.
He said the Minority Caucus had resolved to partner with the G100 to help streamline the ambitions of opposition parties and pursue a collective victory in 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.
Agbedi warned that Nigeria’s current leadership operated on the belief that “all is fair in politics,” and urged party leaders to note this disposition and act accordingly.
He appealed to opposition leaders to set aside personal ambitions for the collective good, cautioning that a fragmented opposition risked another outcome akin to 2023, when millions of votes cast for opposition candidates could not translate to victory because they were divided.
“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.
Presidential candidate of the PRP, Donald Duke said he is ready to forgo his ambition and work with any candidate jointly agreed on by all the participating parties.
According to him, experience has shown that the ego of political leaders often stood in the way of victory for the opposition.
He said all leaders must put their egos aside and work together. “If we think we can go it all alone, then we will fail”, he declared.
Speaking on behalf of the ADC, its National Vice Chairman for the South-South, Usani Uguru Usani, who led some NWC members to the summit, expressed confidence that the coalition would succeed.
He argued that the opposition’s judgment today was informed by actual performance indices rather than speculation, unlike in 2023.
