The convener of the G100 political pressure group, Salihu Lukman, has said the opposition alliance may announce a single presidential candidate, possibly a few days before the 2027 general elections.
NEWSNGR reports that Lukman made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s programme, Hard Copy.
Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the effort has gone beyond the six parties currently involved.
According to him, the parties and their candidates have since taken over the process from the group.
He said, “I can tell you categorically, and my confidence about that comes from what I see in the leadership of the parties: they are committed and they are working, taking all the steps necessary.
“So it could be two months, some weeks to the election, or a few days to the election; they will come out and tell Nigerians this is the direction, and everybody will queue.
“They are also working to expand; they are reaching out to other parties.
“When the parties owned the process we had started and took it beyond, took it out of our hands and began to engage each other based on the need to develop the kind of confidence they need to trust one another.
“The collegiate is basically about ensuring that both the parties and their candidates are the ones taking the decisions, and at the same time the people doing the work are people who have the mandate of both the parties and the candidates, not anybody from outside.”
Asked how the group would handle supporters of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar and the Kwankwasiyya movement, who have shown no sign of collapsing their structure, Lukman said a rigid position is almost like working for the APC and President Bola Tinubu.
He stated, “Taking a hardline position, a rigid position, is almost like working for the APC and the Tinubu government at this point.”
Lukman further said Cardinal John Onaiyekan recently made the same point on Channels Television, noting that opposition candidates cannot split the vote five ways and expect one of them to defeat a ruling party.
He added, “The arithmetic is simple: you can’t split votes five ways and expect victory in one of you.”
