MONDAY PHILIPS EKPE writes that rival candidates in next year’s presidential poll do not stand much chance outside coalition
For now, it appears like kite-flying. The August 2, 2026 open letter conceived and signed by the self-styled G100 will need to be backed soon by stronger energies and actions in order to pass the test of a true catalyst for any consequential political engineering in the runup to the 2027 presidential election. The group had given itself two weeks to bring together the leading lights of the opposition political parties in order to kickstart the process of unifying them towards presenting a single candidate to challenge the incumbent president. The members didn’t seem to consider the conflict with the Osun State governorship poll this weekend.
But the awkward announced timing shouldn’t take any shine off the validity and urgency of this proposition. The group’s front-liners like former National Vice Chairman of All Progressives Congress (North-West), Malam Salihu Lukman, former member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Nnenna Ukeje, ex-Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Chief Simon Achuba, and political economist and public intellectual, Professor Anthony Kila, must be sufficiently conversant with the centrality of virile opposition to the integrity of any democracy and, by implication, every election cycle. Ordinarily, the summit they’re planning with their 96 colleagues should be embraced by all lovers of inclusive, collaborative democratic practice.
