Breaking: Fresh Development Emerges Over Plot to Sack Tinubu in 2027 as PDP, ADC, Others Take Action
- Seven opposition parties met in Abuja on Monday to push for a single presidential candidate against President Tinubu in 2027
- Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi both skipped the G-100 summit, raising fresh doubts about whether a coalition can hold together
- The APC and ambassador-designate Reno Omokri said ego clashes between the top candidates will sink the alliance before it begins
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Plans to unite Nigeria's opposition parties behind one presidential candidate for the 2027 general election are in serious trouble, after the two most prominent contenders failed to show up at a key summit meant to advance the coalition agenda.
Seven opposition parties gathered in Abuja on Monday under the banner of a group called G-100, describing the meeting as a summit aimed at forming an alliance and ultimately producing a joint standard-bearer ahead of the January 16 presidential poll.
Source: UGC
Neither Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), nor Peter Obi, who was ratified as the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on May 29, attended. Their running mates were also absent.
The Abuja gathering was the second such attempt at opposition unity.
The first was an April 25 summit in Ibadan hosted by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement, who was himself absent from his own event.
APC dismisses the coalition push
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wasted no time in declaring the opposition effort a non-starter. APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Basiru said the proposal for a single candidate would collapse under its own contradictions.
"They cannot get a single candidate. Their case is like a maize inside a bottle that hens cannot eat," Basiru said, adding that the opposition was driven by personal ambition rather than national interest. He also dismissed the Abuja gathering as "more of a publicity stunt than actual political relevance."
APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka echoed that view, arguing that the absence of the principal figures at the summit alone was evidence the push had "hit the rock before the journey even began."
Omokri: big egos will kill the deal
Reno Omokri, Nigerian Ambassador-designate to Mexico and a former presidential aide, was equally blunt. Speaking during a media interview, he said the personalities at the centre of the coalition talks carry ambitions too large for compromise.
"Peter Obi is not going to step down for Waziri Atiku Abubakar. Waziri Atiku Abubakar is not going to step down for Peter Obi. None of those people is going to step down for the other. So, it's dead on arrival," he said.
Omokri predicted that the principal actors would eventually avoid negotiations once the question of who flies the joint ticket is raised directly.
The ADC's National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, offered a more cautious reading of the summit's aims, saying the discussions covered far more than the single-candidacy question.
“If it will lead to a situation where we have a single presidential candidate, it will be fine. But that is not the main objective of the conversation," he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by its National Working Committee under Abdulrahman Mohammed, reaffirmed that it had no involvement in the G-100 summit and saw little prospect of the coalition's agenda succeeding.
Legit.ng has previously reported on the collapse of the earlier Ibadan opposition summit and the ongoing divisions within Nigeria's major opposition blocs ahead of 2027.
PDP announces merger
Previously, Legit.ng reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formally endorsed the G-100 initiative, a coalition of 100 opposition figures working to build a unified front against the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general elections, the PDP described its decision as a response to the hardship Nigerians are experiencing under President Bola Tinubu's administration, arguing that a coordinated opposition effort has become necessary to offer the country an alternative path.
Source: Legit.ng
