G100 Coalition Reveals When Opposition Will Pick Single Presidential Candidate

The G100 Coalition has disclosed that opposition parties seeking to unite against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election may announce a single candidate just days or weeks before the poll.

The convener of the group, Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the disclosure during an appearance on Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme.

Lukman said the opposition parties were committed to the process of selecting a consensus candidate.

“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,” Lukman said.

“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,” he added.

The G100 was established to encourage opposition parties to unite behind a single presidential candidate capable of challenging the ruling APC in 2027. The initiative followed an all-opposition summit held in Ibadan in April, where participants resolved to pursue a consensus arrangement.

According to Lukman, the process has expanded beyond the six political parties initially involved, with efforts underway to bring additional parties into the proposed alliance.

“They are also working to expand; they are reaching out to other parties,” he said.

He explained that the political parties and their presidential candidates had assumed responsibility for the process after taking over the initiative from the G100, allowing them to negotiate directly and establish the confidence needed to reach an agreement.

“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,” Lukman said.

He identified the lack of trust among opposition parties and their presidential candidates as one of the major obstacles to achieving a unified political front ahead of the 2027 election.

Lukman disclosed that a summit held on August 31 agreed to establish five working groups to address different aspects of the proposed cooperation, including the selection of a single presidential candidate.

He said each participating party would nominate representatives to the relevant working group through its presidential candidate or the party leadership, with the representatives operating under agreed terms of reference.

“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,” he explained.

The latest disclosure comes amid concerns over the opposition’s ability to persuade prominent presidential contenders, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, to support a common candidate rather than pursue their individual ambitions.

Atiku is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), while Obi is the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). Other political figures are also seeking to position themselves ahead of the 2027 election.

Asked how the proposed alliance would address resistance from supporters of Obi, Atiku and the Kwankwasiyya movement, Lukman warned that rigid political positions could undermine the opposition’s chances against Tinubu.

“Taking a hardline position, a rigid position, is almost like working for the APC and the Tinubu government at this point,” he said.

He added that many people who signed the G100’s open letter supporting opposition unity were themselves supporters of Atiku or Obi, but had been reminded that the country’s interests should take precedence over individual political ambitions.

According to him, the group has consistently maintained that no presidential contender should be regarded as more important than the collective objective of changing the country’s political direction.

Lukman cited comments by John Cardinal Onaiyekan on Channels Television to reinforce the argument that opposition parties could not afford to divide their votes among several candidates and still expect to defeat the ruling party.

“The arithmetic is simple: you can’t split votes five ways and expect victory in one of you,” he said.

The G100 convener also addressed concerns about the differences in the manifestos of the opposition parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate’s pledge to introduce a starting petrol pump price of N300 per litre.

He explained that the objective was not to merge the parties’ manifestos into one document but to develop a minimum programme of action that every candidate would agree to implement if elected president.

“It’s not harmonising manifestos; it’s basically to come up with a minimum programme of action which the government to be produced post-2027 will prioritise implementing,” Lukman said.

He added that the candidates would subscribe to the programme before a consensus candidate emerged, thereby preventing disagreements over policy priorities after the election.

He said much of the groundwork could be completed by drawing on policy proposals already developed by the different presidential campaigns.

“I’m sure the Peter Obi campaign has also done some work; I am also sure Prince Adewole Adebayo and all the other candidates have also done their own work,” he said.

Lukman further stated that the eventual arrangement could take different forms, depending on the outcome of negotiations among the participating parties.

He said the consensus candidate could emerge on the platform of the ADC, another political party, or an alliance that might lead to the formation of a new party.

“It could be ADC, it could be any other party, or it could be an alliance that will produce a new party,” he said.