2027: Opposition Urged To Unite Against Repeat Of 2023 Vote Split

…G100 Proposes Single Candidate, Coalition Pact, Reform Agenda

Opposition political parties have intensified moves to forge a common front ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the G100 National Summit in Abuja warning that disunity could again cost them the presidency.

Leaders and representatives of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) attended the summit alongside lawmakers, former governors and ministers, civil society leaders, labour representatives and other stakeholders.

The summit observed that the opposition’s fragmentation during the 2023 presidential election provided a major lesson on the consequences of splitting votes among multiple candidates.

Director-General of G100, Dr. Salihu Lukman, said President Bola Tinubu who won the 2023 presidential election, secured just under nine million votes, while two major opposition candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, combined polled over 13 million votes.

He said the combined votes of Atiku and Obi would have surpassed those of Tinubu, arguing that the outcome exposed the danger of fragmented opposition.

“13 million votes on one side of the alley, under nine million votes on the other. And the side with fewer votes formed the government—lawfully, constitutionally, and entirely predictably,” Lukman said.

According to him, the outcome was not necessarily the result of electoral conspiracy, but of opposition parties dividing their support base.

“Nobody stole 13 million votes. We divided them ourselves in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequences would be,” he said.

Lukman cautioned opposition parties against blaming every electoral setback on the ruling party, electoral bodies or the judiciary, saying internal divisions had repeatedly contributed to their failures.

“Opposition in Nigeria has not only been defeated by its opponents; it has more than once been defeated by itself—by parties that could not keep agreements, by individuals who could not stay the course, and by frameworks that were not spelt out explicitly,” he said.

He said any coalition arrangement for 2027 must therefore be founded on clearly defined commitments, enforceable agreements and mechanisms for resolving disputes.

The G100 proposed three standing structures to coordinate the opposition cooperation process.

They include a central leadership committee comprising national chairmen, national secretaries, presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates of participating parties.

The committee, according to the proposal, would provide political direction, negotiate proposals, mobilise party structures and supervise implementation.

A publicity and communication committee, comprising national publicity secretaries and presidential campaign spokespersons, would coordinate the coalition’s messaging and joint public interventions.

A proposed legal committee would comprise national legal advisers and designated legal representatives of participating parties and would coordinate legal strategy, respond to common legal challenges and advise on the legality of proposed coalition arrangements.

Lukman said the G100 would remain a facilitator and observer and would not seek to replace the authority of the participating political parties.

The summit was also asked to approve five working groups to develop a comprehensive framework for opposition cooperation within four weeks.

The groups are expected to produce 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 proposed National Reform Programme, the summit said, would cover constitutional, judicial, electoral, federal, economic, security and institutional reforms, while the unity framework would establish rules for cooperation, decision-making, conflict