…Someone Must Accept An Outcome They Did Not Want For Opposition Unity To Work
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Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has pledged to support any candidate who emerges from ongoing efforts by opposition political parties to forge a common platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Duke made the commitment on Monday at the G100 Summit of Nigeria’s Opposition Political Parties held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
He said he would remain committed to the opposition unity process, irrespective of the outcome of negotiations among the participating political parties.
“We will support any political party that emerges in 2027. Whatever decision is arrived at today, I will not walk away but will strive all along because that’s what the people want to see,” Duke said.
The summit, convened by the G100 in collaboration with the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, brought together leaders and representatives of six opposition parties, including the African Democratic Congress, Allied Peoples Movement, Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party and Social Democratic Party.
Speaking on behalf of the G100, Salihu Mohammed Lukman said opposition parties could only mount an effective challenge against the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027 if they overcame the divisions that contributed to their defeat in the 2023 presidential election.
Lukman said opposition parties collectively received about 13 million votes in the 2023 election, compared with fewer than nine million votes secured by the winner, but lost because their votes were divided among several candidates.
“Nobody stole thirteen million votes. We divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be,” he said.
He recalled the negotiations that preceded the 2015 general elections, during which opposition parties agreed on the rules governing their alliance and the process for producing a common presidential candidate.
According to him, the lesson from that experience was that parties must first agree on the rules before negotiating political positions.
“What they had was not affection. What they had was sequence. They agreed on the rules before they knew the outcome,” Lukman said.
He explained that consultations conducted by the G100 showed that opposition leaders understood the consequences of remaining divided but lacked a common platform for negotiating their interests.
“What has been missing is not analysis. It is a table,” he added.
Lukman clarified that the summit was not asking any opposition party to dissolve or demanding that any presidential aspirant immediately withdraw from the race.
“It is not asking any party to dissolve. It is not asking any party to disappear into another party. It is not asking any candidate to stand down this morning,” he said.
He said the objective was to secure the parties’ approval for a framework through which their interests, ambitions and policy positions could be negotiated.
The proposed framework comprises three standing coalition structures: a Central Leadership Committee, a Publicity and Communication Committee, and a Legal Committee.
The G100 also proposed five working groups to prepare documents on democratic renewal, a proposed four-year transition, a national reform programme, opposition unity and a roadmap for producing a common presidential candidate.
According to Lukman, the working groups are expected to complete their assignments within four weeks and submit their papers for consideration at a second summit.
He said the proposed coalition would seek to establish a “Government of National Competence” and implement a four-year National Reset Programme supported by an enforceable Transition Charter.
Lukman warned that the coalition’s success would depend on the willingness of political leaders to make concessions and accept outcomes that might not favour their personal ambitions.
“There is no version of this that costs nobody anything. Someone in this hall will have to accept an outcome he or she did not want. That is what unity is. It is not a communiqué. It is somebody’s disappointment, borne well,” he said.
He maintained that the ultimate objective was to present Nigerians with a credible alternative government in 2027.
“Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published on August 2: that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government.
“Today, that possibility is in this room. It is in nobody else’s hands,” Lukman said.
Also speaking, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Fredrick Agbedi, said the caucus partnered with the G100 to unite opposition parties, streamline their ambitions and establish a collective platform capable of winning the 2027 elections.
“On behalf of the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, we decided that we partner with the G100 to see how the opposition parties can come together, streamline our ambitions and ensure that we take this government out,” he said.
“Not just take this government out, but salvage Nigeria. Because we all know that Nigeria is in pain, and Nigerians are suffering since the inception of the APC government in Nigeria.”
Agbedi said the Minority Caucus had no preferred presidential candidate and was not supporting one opposition party or politician above others.
“For us, like the G100 has said, there is no issue of preferred candidates, there is no issue of one we love more than the other, but there is strength in unity,” he said.
He urged opposition leaders to replicate the cooperation that enabled opposition parties to defeat the then-ruling PDP in the 2015 presidential election.
“If we are united, what the APC did in 2015, we can repeat it. Some will say it is late, but we feel it is better late than never,” he added.
Agbedi warned that fielding multiple opposition candidates in 2027 could again divide their votes and prevent them from winning the presidency.
“What will it benefit us when we are divided and scattered and we go into elections and come back to collate the millions of votes we have divided amongst ourselves and could not give us victory?
“It will be like an exercise in futility. And we pray that we shouldn’t, in 2027, go back to that,” he said.
The lawmaker also linked unity among opposition leaders to the effectiveness of opposition members in the National Assembly, arguing that divisions at the national leadership level had weakened cooperation among lawmakers.
He called on representatives attending the summit to impress upon their principals the importance of participating personally in the unity process.
“We urge those who are here representing their principals to speak to their principals. Their faces are required in gatherings like this.
“We need to take this journey collectively so that, at the end of the day, victory shall be our own,” Agbedi said.
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