The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, and his Nigeria Democratic Congress counterpart, Peter Obi, were absent on Monday as opposition parties and presidential candidates opened fresh negotiations in Abuja on the possibility of presenting a single candidate against the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2027 presidential election.
The summit, convened by the G-100 political pressure group at the Yar’Adua Centre, brought together representatives of six opposition parties — the ADC, Allied Peoples Movement, NDC, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party and Social Democratic Party.
Among those present were the PRP presidential candidate, Donald Duke; SDP presidential candidate, Adewale Adebayo; Democratic Leadership Alliance candidate, Moses Olusoji; and APM vice-presidential candidate, Lawan Daura, alongside other party leaders and stakeholders.
The absence of Atiku and Obi was not explained at the meeting. However, a source familiar with the discussions said the two leading opposition figures were watching the process closely and were likely to take a position after assessing the framework being developed by the G-100 organisers.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the emergence of the G-100 after the various parties had already produced their presidential candidates could make the negotiations particularly difficult.
“While the goal of the G-100 is laudable, Atiku is perhaps thinking that they started quite late. He is in support of every legitimate strategy to unseat the APC-led government, but the fact that the group emerged after the parties had produced their respective presidential candidates didn’t make the work easier.
“The argument is, who will be willing to step down at this point in time? These are what I think Atiku is looking at at the moment, but I am not speaking for him,” the source said.
On Obi, the source said his absence was also understandable given the political calculations surrounding the reported alliance between the former Anambra State governor and ex-Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
“As for Obi, I would have been surprised to see him here. Unless others agree to put aside their ambition in support of the Obi/Kwankwaso ticket, I don’t see them backing out of the race.
“However, both men are likely to attend subsequent meetings if they are sure the G-100 is on track,” he added.
Although efforts to obtain official reasons for their absence from the camps of both presidential candidates were unsuccessful, the spokesman of the House of Representatives minority caucus, Afam Ogene, said their absence should not be interpreted as a lack of support for the initiative.
Ogene said Monday’s summit was primarily to lay the foundation for the process.
“It’s just the laying of structures, so the party chairmen and officials largely handled that,” he stated.
Similarly, Atiku’s media aide, Phrank Shaibu, said the former vice president’s absence was unavoidable and should not be construed as a boycott or lack of commitment to efforts aimed at strengthening opposition unity.
Shaibu said Atiku remained fully aligned with the objective of the summit and supported efforts to build a broad and disciplined opposition ahead of the 2027 election.
“His Excellency’s absence was unavoidable and should not be mischievously interpreted as a boycott or lack of commitment to opposition unity.
“He is fully aligned with the objective of the summit and has made his position clear: Nigeria urgently needs a broad, disciplined and united opposition capable of ending the hardship, insecurity and economic mismanagement of the Tinubu administration in 2027.
“Atiku’s commitment to that cause is not in doubt,” Shaibu said.
Duke on consensus
Despite the absence of two of the opposition’s most prominent presidential contenders, Donald Duke pledged to support whoever emerges from the negotiations as the opposition’s consensus candidate.
Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, said his commitment to the process was not conditional on whether he eventually emerged as the candidate.
“We will support any political party that emerges in 2027. Whatever decision is arrived at today, I will not walk away but will strive all along because that’s what the people want to see,” he said.
The summit came against the backdrop of the opposition’s failure to coordinate its votes in the 2023 presidential election.
Opening the summit, the G-100 convener, Salihu Lukman, argued that opposition parties collectively secured about 13 million votes in 2023—substantially more than the less than nine million votes recorded by the eventual winner, President Bola Tinubu—but lost the opportunity to defeat the All Progressives Congress because the votes were divided among several candidates.
“Nobody stole 13m votes. We divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be,” Lukman said.
He urged the parties to draw lessons from the negotiations that preceded the 2015 presidential election, when opposition parties eventually formed the APC and defeated the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
According to Lukman, the success of the 2015 alliance was not based on personal affection among the political actors but on an agreed process.
“What they had was not affection. What they had was sequence. They agreed on the rules before they knew the outcome,” he said.
He said the immediate task before the opposition was therefore not to compel parties or candidates to abandon their ambitions, but to establish a structure through which competing interests could be negotiated.
“What has been missing is not analysis. It is a table,” Lukman said.
Summit’s negotiation framework
At the end of the summit, the six participating parties agreed to begin a structured negotiation process on opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 election.
A communiqué read by Ogene stated that the parties recognised that insecurity, the rising cost of living and limited employment opportunities required political cooperation that went beyond the interests of individual parties.
The parties agreed to establish three standing coalition organs: a Central Leadership Committee, a Publicity and Communication Committee and a Legal Committee.
According to Ogene, “The Central Leadership Committee will provide political direction and coordination, while the Publicity and Communication Committee will handle joint messaging and media engagements. The Legal Committee will advise on the constitutional and legal aspects of the negotiations and draft agreements arising from the process.”
The communiqué also approved five working groups, with each participating party expected to nominate a representative to each group.
The groups are to prepare proposals 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 groups have four weeks to complete their assignments, after which the opposition parties will reconvene for a second summit to consider the recommendations.
Lukman stressed that the initiative was not asking any party to dissolve or any presidential candidate to withdraw 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,” he stated.
Rather, he said the objective was to create an agreed mechanism for negotiating the interests and demands of the different parties before a final decision was taken on the presidential ticket.
G-100 four-year proposal
The summit also proposed a four-year transition arrangement as part of its broader political reform agenda.
The proposal is contained in the Single-Term Transition Charter to be developed by one of the five working groups. It forms part of the G-100’s plan for what it described as a “Government of National Competence” and a four-year National Reset Programme.
However, the summit’s communiqué did not provide further details on how the proposed four-year transition would operate or whether it would require constitutional amendments.
The opposition parties also called for greater transparency and public accountability among persons occupying the highest offices in the country.
In a resolution that could trigger further political controversy, the G-100 called on the United States Government to process and lawfully disclose all non-exempt official records concerning President Bola Tinubu that are of legitimate public interest, subject to applicable law and ongoing judicial proceedings in the United States.
The communiqué specifically referenced Freedom of Information Act proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. It, however, stressed that the demand did not presume the contents of any undisclosed records or amount to a finding of wrongdoing.
The G-100 also said it would communicate its position to the ECOWAS Commission and other relevant Community institutions, seeking diplomatic and institutional engagement on transparency and public accountability.
According to Lukman, “Someone will have to accept an outcome he did not want.”
He acknowledged that the search for a single opposition candidate would inevitably require some political actors to make sacrifices.
“There is no version of this that costs nobody anything. Someone in this hall will have to accept an outcome he/she did not want. That is what unity is. It is not a communiqué. It is somebody’s disappointment, borne well,” he said.
The group said its ultimate objective was not merely to create another electoral alliance but to provide Nigerians with a credible alternative to the ruling party.
“Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published in August, which is that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government.
“Today, that possibility is in this room. It is in nobody else’s hands,” Lukman declared.
The latest initiative comes as opposition parties intensify efforts to avoid a repeat of the 2023 presidential election, when votes were split among Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso and other candidates, allowing the APC’s Tinubu to emerge with a plurality rather than a majority of the total votes cast.
With the major opposition parties already divided over their presidential ambitions, the immediate challenge for the G-100 will be to persuade the leading candidates and their parties to accept a transparent process capable of determining who eventually flies a common opposition ticket in 2027.
(Source: Punch with modified headline)
