The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, and his Nigeria Democratic Congress counterpart, Peter Obi, were absent on Monday as opposition parties and presidential candidates opened fresh negotiations in Abuja on the possibility of presenting a single candidate against the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2027 presidential election.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election and a leading opposition figure ahead of the 2027 presidential election, Peter Obi.
The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
The summit, convened by the G-100 political pressure group at the Yar’Adua Centre, brought together representatives of six opposition parties — the ADC, Allied Peoples Movement, NDC, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party and Social Democratic Party.
Among those present were the PRP presidential candidate, Donald Duke; SDP presidential candidate, Adewale Adebayo; Democratic Leadership Alliance candidate, Moses Olusoji; and APM vice-presidential candidate, Lawan Daura, alongside other party leaders and stakeholders.
The absence of Atiku and Obi was not explained at the meeting. However, a source familiar with the discussions said the two leading opposition figures were watching the process closely and were likely to take a position after assessing the framework being developed by the G-100 organisers.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the emergence of the G-100 after the various parties had already produced their presidential candidates could make the negotiations particularly difficult.
“While the goal of the G-100 is laudable, Atiku is perhaps thinking that they started quite late. He is in support of every legitimate strategy to unseat the APC-led government, but the fact that the group emerged after the parties had produced their respective presidential candidates didn’t make the work easier.
“The argument is, who will be willing to step down at this point in time? These are what I think Atiku is looking at at the moment, but I am not speaking for him,” the source said.
