Six opposition political parties have agreed to begin structured negotiations on a framework for cooperation ahead of the 2027 general elections, including a roadmap for producing a consensus presidential candidate and a single-term transition charter
The parties – the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) – reached the agreement at the G100 First Summit of Party Leaders and Stakeholders held in Abuja on Monday
Key party leaders at the summit included PRP National Chairman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed; APM National Chairman Yusuf Dantalle; SDP National Chairman Shehu Musa Gabam; and NDC National Chairman, Cleopas Moses
Others were Usani Usani, NDC National Vice Chairman, South-South; Babangida Aliyu, representing the factional PDP; Fredrick Agbedi, Minority Leader, House of Representatives; and Donald Duke, former Governor of Cross River State and PRP presidential candidate
In a joint communiqué issued at the end of the summit, the parties said their national chairmen and principal leaders had agreed “to commit to a structured process of negotiation on the framework for opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 general election”
As part of the process, the parties agreed to establish five working groups to produce key documents within four weeks, including a “Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate”
Other documents to be developed are “a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, Single-Term Transition Charter, National Reform Programme and Framework for Opposition Unity”
According to the communiqué, each working group will have one nominee from each participating party and submit its document to the Central Leadership Committee within four weeks for consideration at a second summit
The parties also agreed to establish three standing coalition organs: the Central Leadership Committee, Publicity and Communication Committee, and Legal Committee, to coordinate the proposed cooperation
The Central Leadership Committee will provide political direction and coordination, while the Publicity and Communication Committee will handle joint messaging and media engagement The Legal Committee will advise on legal and constitutional issues, and vet negotiated instruments.
The communiqué said the parties recognised that the success of the process would depend on the willingness of the leaders to determine “how far each party is prepared to go in the cooperation,” their red lines and whether they would support a framework they considered fair
G100 facilitator Salihu Lukman urged that opposition parties must learn from their failure to unite their votes in the 2023 presidential election
He said the opposition parties collectively secured about 13 million votes in 2023, compared with less than nine million votes recorded by the eventual winner, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but failed to translate their combined strength into victory because the votes were divided among several candidates
He cited the opposition cooperation that preceded the 2015 presidential election as an example of how parties could agree on rules for cooperation before deciding who would emerge as their candidate
“What they had was not affection What they had was sequence. They agreed on the rules before they knew the outcome,” he said.
Lukman said consultations with the six parties showed that their leaders understood the consequences of division but lacked a platform for negotiating their interests
“What has been missing is not analysis It is a table,” he said.
Lukman, however, stressed that the summit was not asking any party to dissolve or any candidate to immediately withdraw from the presidential race Rather, he said the objective was to establish a process through which the parties could negotiate their interests and determine the basis for cooperation.
He said the proposed coalition would also work towards a “government of national competence and a four-year national reset programme” backed by an enforceable transition charter He warned that the process would require political leaders to make sacrifices and accept outcomes that might not favour their individual ambitions.
“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.
Lukman said the ultimate objective was to provide Nigerians with a credible alternative government in 2027
“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 Today, that possibility is in this room. It is in nobody else’s hands,” he said.
Reps minority leader calls for sacrifice
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Fredrick Agbedi, also urged opposition leaders to subordinate their individual ambitions to the broader objective of defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
Agbedi said the Minority Caucus partnered with the G100 to bring opposition parties together and build a platform capable of winning the 2027 election
“On behalf of the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, we decided that we partner with the G100 to see how the opposition parties can come together, streamline our ambitions, and ensure that we take this government out
“Not just take this government out, but salvage Nigeria Because we all know that Nigeria is in pain, and Nigerians have been suffering since the inception of the APC government in Nigeria,” he said.
The lawmaker explained that the caucus had no preferred opposition candidate and was not backing any particular party or politician
“For us, as the G100 has said, there is no issue of preferred candidates, there is no issue of one we love more than the other, but that there is strength in unity,” Agbedi said
He urged the opposition to replicate the cooperation that enabled it to defeat the PDP in 2015
“And if we are united, what the APC did in 2015, we can repeat it; we can do it Some will say it’s late, but we feel it’s better late than never,” he said.
Agbedi warned that opposition parties risked repeating the mistakes of previous elections if they failed to agree on a common strategy
“So what will it benefit us when we are divided and scattered and we go into elections, and we come back to collate the millions of votes we have divided amongst ourselves and 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 added.
Will coalition produce single candidate?
The National Vice Chairman, South-South of the ADC, Usani Usani, while supporting the search for opposition cooperation, cautioned against treating a single presidential candidate as the only possible route to victory
He asked whether failure to produce a single candidate should automatically be interpreted as failure by the opposition
“Assuming we are unable to project a single presidential candidate, should we presume that we are failing?” he asked
He said opposition parties did not think alike and warned against internal divisions, noting that some politicians often moved between ruling and opposition parties based on political interests
The ADC chieftain argued that even where opposition parties failed to reach a consensus, strategic coordination could still produce victory He stressed that his position should not be interpreted as opposition to a single candidate.
“It is a matter of strategy, not because we do not support the evolution of a single candidate, but because we want to understand the possibility or impossibility of getting one at that point Therefore, we should not be discouraged,” he said.
He also warned opposition parties against attacking one another instead of focusing on their common political opponent He said the opposition had a stronger basis for assessing its prospects in 2027 because it now had the experience of the 2023 election, adding that opposition cooperation remained achievable and necessary.
“For us, it is not only possible, but mandatory, because it is now or never,” he stated
The National Chairman of the APM, Yusuf Dantalle, also backed the cooperation process, saying opposition leaders needed to put national interests ahead of their personal and party ambitions
He described the summit as an opportunity to restore what he called Nigerian integrity and return power to the people He urged the participating parties to look beyond their individual interests.
“The Allied Peoples Movement will stand by anything that has to do with the Nigeria project We need this country to give back power to the people and make it better for all of us, so that we can be proud of Nigeria again,” he said.
The PDP representative, Babagida Aliyu, commended the G100 for creating a platform for opposition parties to negotiate their interests, saying personal ambitions had previously undermined the political process
“This is something that has been missing all along, where we have allowed personal ambitions and pecuniary interests to take over the political process And now, we are all crying,” Aliyu said.
He said the objective was not to immediately select a candidate but to establish a framework that would guide future decisions Aliyu called for the opposition unity process to be extended to the states and local government areas.
‘We’re on a rescue mission’
The SDP National Chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, described the initiative as a “rescue mission” aimed at bringing the opposition together to provide Nigerians with an alternative
He said the SDP demonstrated its commitment to the process by attending the summit with its presidential and vice-presidential candidates and members of its National Working Committee
He cited the performance of opposition parties in the 2023 election as evidence that Nigerians were willing to support alternatives
“The issue is that we have never been in doubt of the Nigerian people’s resolve to always vote for good governance,” he said
He argued that opposition parties must be willing to make sacrifices and subordinate personal ambitions to the broader objective
He urged other opposition parties to participate fully in the process and meet the expectations of Nigerians
“But I want to end by calling on other sister political parties to make sure that we live up to the expectations of the Nigerian people,” he said
The PRP National Chairman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said no opposition party should assume it could defeat the APC alone, insisting that cooperation was necessary to achieve victory in 2027
He said the participating parties were not at the summit because they were weak but because they believed cooperation was necessary to change the government
“We are not here because we are too weak We are here because we believe the fight to get this government out of power and to put one of us or all of us in power is absolutely imperative in this country,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed also said the six parties faced various challenges, including legal battles and what he described as efforts to weaken them
“There is no party among the six that is here that is not facing an existential threat None. We are all in court. There are efforts to cripple us and destroy us, but we will not be destroyed because we represent the Nigerian people,” he said.
Former Cross River State governor and PRP presidential candidate, Donald Duke, pledged to support whichever opposition candidate eventually emerges from the negotiations
“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,” Duke said.
We’re fully committed to G100 agenda – NDC, ADC
The NDC National Chairman, Moses, said the party was fully committed to the opposition unity initiative, describing it as necessary to address what he called the country’s current leadership challenges
Moses said he attended the meeting as a representative of the party’s national leader, former Bayelsa State Governor and Senator, Henry Seriake Dickson, as well as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates
He commended the organisers for bringing opposition parties together, saying the NDC considered itself an integral part of the initiative
He said, “We want to appreciate the organisers of this summit As a political party, we want to put it on record that we are part and parcel of what we’re doing together as opposition political parties in the country. We want to also establish our assurance that this is needed at this time of the country.
“Even the Holy Book has said that it is a good thing when brethren dwell together in unity So, it is a good thing when opposition parties that are not pretending but convinced that our country is in a comatose, and it is so because of the leadership that it has found itself in, think through and establish a pathway to rescue this nation.”
Also, the ADC has declared that it is fully committed to the idea of opposition working together ahead of the 2027 general elections
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, told Daily Trust that the G100’s idea is a “noble objective and we will do our best”
“We welcome it as a party We also believe that it’s better for the opposition to stick together since we have a common objective to the extent of rescuing the country from the bad governance that is going on at the moment,” he added.
Abdullahi said the opposition needs to work together to achieve some of their objectives in 2027
“It’s possible, but you see, it depends on what your expectations are We believe that we should be able to cooperate as much as possible, but we don’t think that the sole objective should be about producing a common presidential candidate.
“There is more to it than just that; if that happens, all well and good, but that is not the objective as we understand it We believe that the objective is much broader than that. Don’t forget that there is also a fundamental issue regarding the African Democratic Congress.
“We believe, for example, that we are going to return the subsidy So that’s also an important issue. If any of the other parties don’t believe in the return of subsidy, then it’s difficult for us to come together in terms of producing a common presidential candidate.
“But there are other areas of cooperation that are possible, and one of them is what I’ve told you, which is that we can cooperate for the purpose of ensuring that the election is not rigged, for presenting a common opportunity, for the opposition front against the ruling party,” he added
Experts differ on single candidate
Political science expert, Prof Atah Pine of the Department of Political Science, Benue State University, has said the opposition parties may find it difficult to produce a single presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections.
Pine said recent statements by leaders of two major opposition parties indicated that they were not considering withdrawing their presidential candidates to support a common candidate
Pine said the parties were more likely to assess their respective strengths across the country and develop an arrangement that would enable them to support one another in areas where individual parties have stronger structures
“Besides, at this point, no party would like to withdraw its candidate because of the stakes What I see them doing is to weigh their comparative strengths across the federation and work out an arrangement whereby they will complement each other’s strengths,” he said.
He explained that parties could, for instance, support the candidate of another opposition party in a state or constituency where that party has greater political strength
He described the possible arrangement as a “quasi-alliance framework” aimed at complementing the parties’ areas of weakness
However, a political analyst, Prof Saleh Dauda of the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja, said it is feasible for the opposition parties to produce a single presidential candidate ahead of the 2027 general elections, but warned that the process would face significant challenges.
Professor Dauda said a united opposition candidate could pose a serious challenge to the ruling party if the parties were able to overcome their individual political ambitions
“It is feasible, but with some challenges If they can come together and field a single candidate, they are likely to pose a serious challenge to the ruling party,” he stated.
He identified the willingness of individual politicians to sacrifice their ambitions for the collective interest as one of the major obstacles to achieving a single opposition candidate
“The challenge I can foresee is, amongst them, the ability for some of them to forgo their ambition for the sake of one of them That would be a challenge. As it is now, I hope that Atiku Abubakar, who is a major opposition candidate, Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, if they can forgo their personal political ambition to work together for one single candidate, that would be better,” he said.
Also, a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Ilorin and immediate past President of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Prof Hassan Saliu, said the proposed alliance could mark a significant development ahead of the 2027 general elections, but warned that personal ambitions and ideological differences could undermine its chances of success
Saliu, who is now the President of the Nigerian Society of International Affairs (NSIA), said the proposed coalition should learn from Nigeria’s political history, particularly the alliance that brought together opposition forces ahead of the 2015 presidential election
By Daniel Adaji, Baba Martins (Abuja) & Mumini Abdulkareem (Ilorin)