The inability of opposition presidential candidates to agree on a single platform is increasingly strengthening President Bola Tinubu’s prospects of securing re-election as the January 16, 2027 presidential election draws closer.
Fresh negotiations among opposition parties and presidential candidates in Abuja this week exposed the difficulty of forging a common front, with two of the leading opposition figures, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, and his Nigeria Democratic Congress counterpart, Peter Obi, absent from the meeting.
The summit, convened by the G-100 political pressure group at the Yar’Adua Centre, was attended by 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 Donald Duke, PRP presidential candidate; Adewale Adebayo, SDP presidential candidate; Moses Olusoji, Democratic Leadership Alliance candidate; and Lawan Daura, APM vice-presidential candidate alongside other party leaders and political stakeholders.
The renewed talks came amid growing concerns that the opposition could repeat the fragmentation that cost it the presidency in 2023, when its candidates collectively secured about 13 million votes but failed to defeat Tinubu because the votes were split among several candidates. Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election with less than nine million votes.
