The leader of the G100 political pressure group, Salihu Lukman, has admitted that persuading opposition presidential candidates, including Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, to work together ahead of the 2027 election is a difficult task.
Lukman, who is also a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), spoke on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Tuesday while discussing the group’s efforts to forge a common front among opposition parties and their presidential candidates.
He said the major challenge was that the leading opposition figures all wanted to become president, while their supporters remained committed to seeing their preferred candidates emerge.
“The point you raise is really a very serious issue, and all that we keep saying, which we emphasise, each one of them wants to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but only one of them can be president,” Lukman said.
He acknowledged that managing the competing ambitions and loyalties within the opposition was “a very difficult task”, but said the G100 was urging both the candidates and their supporters to prioritise the broader objective of defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him, allowing the opposition candidates to contest separately could repeat the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
“If we encourage them to go in this divided way, we will repeat what happened in 2023 and come back to square one,” he said.
The ADC chieftain argued that the primary objective should be to present a formidable opposition capable of giving Nigerians confidence and challenging President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The main opponent is the APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is the main opponent. If we encourage them to continue to contest against each other, it will strengthen the main opponent,” he said.
He explained that the G100 was engaging opposition leaders on two fronts: encouraging them to negotiate and produce a common presidential platform, while also developing a shared agenda for governance if they defeat the APC in 2027.
“The second level when they win the election, what are they going to work on? These are the two issues that we are pushing,” Lukman said.
He added that the proposed alliance should go beyond replacing political leaders, insisting that the opposition must explain how it intends to address Nigeria’s problems.
“It’s not about changing faces in government. It’s about also coming up to say, look, at the end of the day, we acknowledge Nigeria is faced with this problem, and this is how we intend to tackle it,” he said.
Lukman said the group had received “encouraging signals” from some opposition leaders and was conscious of the limited time remaining before the 2027 election.
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