2027: Opposition sets 4-week timeline for single presidential candidate framework

•Fine-tunes strategy to wrest power from Tinubu • Reps caucus: Put personal ambitions aside

From** Ndubuisi Orji, **Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have intensified moves to forge a common front to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027, setting a four-week timeline to produce a framework for the emergence of a single presidential candidate.

The six opposition parties also challenged their leaders to subordinate individual presidential ambitions to the broader objective of defeating the ruling party, with the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives declaring that the APC remained beatable if the opposition could unite.

The parties announced the decisions in a communiqué issued at the end of a Summit of Opposition Political Parties in Abuja, yesterday, where their leaders acknowledged that greater cooperation would substantially improve their chances against Tinubu and the APC.

The summit was facilitated by G-100, a group of opposition politicians pushing for the six parties to cooperate and ultimately present a single presidential candidate in the 2027 election.

Also in attendance were SDP presidential candidate, Adewale Adebayo; his PRP counterpart, Donald Duke; and members of the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives.

Apart from the framework for a single presidential candidate, the parties resolved to set up four other working groups to produce, within the same four-week period, a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, Single-Term Transition Charter, National Reform Programme and Framework for Opposition Unity.

Reports of the working groups are expected to be considered at the next summit of the opposition parties.

The parties also agreed to establish a Central Leadership Committee to provide overall political direction and coordinate the cooperation process, as well as serve as final arbiter on matters referred to it by the working groups.

Publicity and Communication and Legal committees are also to be established as part of the emerging opposition structure.

“We agree, as National Chairmen and principal leaders of our respective parties, to commit to a structured process of negotiation on the framework for opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 general election,” the communiqué stated.

The parties said the initiative was informed by what they described as worsening insecurity, rising cost of living, unemployment and scarcity of economic opportunities across the country. “This commitment reflects our shared recognition that the challenges confronting our nation — insecurity, the rising cost of living, and the scarcity of jobs and opportunity for our citizens — demand a level of political cooperation that transcends the narrow interests of any single party,” they said.

•Reps caucus: Shelve personal ambitions

Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Fredrick Agbedi, told the summit that opposition leaders must put personal ambitions aside and work together if they were serious about defeating the APC in 2027.

Agbedi said the ruling party was beatable, recalling that opposition parties successfully came together ahead of the 2015 general election to form the APC, which subsequently defeated the then ruling PDP.

“Nigeria is in pain. Nigerians are suffering. If we are united, what APC did in 2015, we can repeat it,” he said.

The lawmaker urged the opposition to “think outside the box,” warning that the struggle over who should emerge as presidential candidate must not be allowed to undermine the broader objective of presenting a formidable challenge to the ruling party.

He said opposition leaders should focus on what would benefit Nigerians rather than what would advance their individual political ambitions.

The six parties themselves acknowledged that significant hurdles remained, particularly over how far individual parties were prepared to compromise their interests and the terms under which a common candidate would emerge.

“We recognise that the success of this process ultimately rests on questions that only the leaders of the respective parties can answer: how far each party is prepared to go in the cooperation; what its hardlines are; and whether it will support a framework for opposition cooperation through a process it regards as fair.

“We place these questions formally before ourselves as party leaders, and record at this summit the beginning of candid answers to them, answers to be deepened and clarified through the negotiation process ahead,” the communiqué stated.

•ADC: Single candidate achievable

ADC National Vice Chairman, South-South, Usani Usani, said his party believed a coalition of the major opposition parties and the emergence of a common presidential candidate were achievable.

He, however, argued that failure to reach consensus on a single candidate would not necessarily spell the end of the opposition’s chances.

“Assuming we fail to produce a single presidential candidate, have we failed?” Usani asked. He said the opposition would have to undertake a critical evaluation of the 2023 election and develop an effective strategy for 2027. “Even if we do not reach a consensus, we can still win. It is a function of strategy,” he said.

•PRP: Opposition collaboration imperative

National Chairman of the PRP, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, also urged the parties to close ranks, saying Nigerians were looking to the opposition to provide a credible alternative in 2027.

Baba-Ahmed acknowledged that each of the six parties wanted to produce the next President but said the political realities confronting them made collaboration imperative.

“As we speak, no party here will tell you they are not serious about their chances of becoming president. 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.

“It must happen, and with the support of Nigerians, it will happen. But the certainty of it happening will be reinforced by the way we work,” he said.

Baba-Ahmed alleged that the opposition parties were facing attempts to weaken them through internal and legal challenges.

“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 stated.

•Coalition demands Tinubu’s US records

In another resolution, the opposition coalition called on the United States government to facilitate the lawful release of non-exempt official records concerning President Tinubu which bear legitimate public interest for Nigerians.

The demand, which forms another plank of the opposition’s resolutions ahead of 2027, is to be formally communicated to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission and other appropriate Community institutions.

“We further resolve that transparency concerning persons entrusted with the highest offices of the Republic is indispensable to democratic legitimacy and public confidence,” the communiqué stated.

According to the group, “the G100 calls upon the Government of the United States of America, acting through its appropriate authorities and consistently with applicable law and existing judicial processes, to ensure the timely processing and lawful disclosure of all non-exempt official records concerning President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that bear legitimate public interest for the Nigerian people.”

The group referred to ongoing Freedom of Information Act proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, maintaining that Nigerians were entitled to the fullest disclosure permitted by law on matters touching on the integrity and credibility of the Presidency.

It, however, stressed that its demand did not presume the contents of any undisclosed records or constitute a finding of wrongdoing against the President.

‘We divided ourselves in 2023’

Earlier, G-100 spokesman, Salihu Lukman, said the outcome of the 2023 presidential election demonstrated the political consequences of a fragmented opposition and provided the strongest argument for unity ahead of 2027.

“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.

“That is not a conspiracy. Nobody stole thirteen million votes. We divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be.”

Lukman cited Kenya’s 2002 election and Malaysia’s 2018 election as examples of opposition forces coming together to remove long-established ruling parties.

“In Kenya in 2002, a party that had governed for thirty-nine years was removed, not by a new idea, but by an opposition that finally agreed to be one opposition.

“In Malaysia in 2018, a coalition that had governed for sixty-one years was removed in much the same way, by people who had been each other’s prosecutors and each other’s prisoners. In neither case did the opposition win because it had become more virtuous. It won because it had become one,” he said.

Lukman said G-100 was not promoting any particular aspirant or political party but was interested in building a viable alternative ahead of the election.

“We are not promoting any candidate, no preference among the six parties in this hall, and nothing to gain from one of you rather than another.

“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,” he said.

The post 2027: Opposition sets 4-week timeline for single presidential candidate framework appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.