Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Ex-Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and other presidential candidates currently face a daunting task of subordinating their ambitions and ideological differences to a common platform against incumbent President, Bola Tinubu, who is seeking re-election at the January, 2027 poll. Sunday Aborisade examines the hurdles before them.
The opposition’s latest attempt to forge a common front against President Bola Tinubu has revived memories of the historic 2015 election, when disparate political forces buried their differences, formed the All Progressives Congress and ended the Peoples Democratic Party’s 16-year grip on power.
But while the arithmetic of opposition unity appears compelling, the politics of achieving it may prove far more difficult.
At the G100 Summit in Abuja on Monday, six opposition parties which include the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), agreed to begin structured negotiations aimed at building a common platform ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The summit, however, stopped deliberately short of the most contentious question: who will fly the opposition’s presidential flag? That omission was not accidental. It may well be the most difficult issue confronting the coalition project.
