At G100 Summit, Opposition Parties Moot Recreating 2015 Experience to Oust Tinubu

At the G100 Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria’s main opposition political parties gathered to discuss recreating the successful alliance strategy used in 2015 to defeat then President Goodluck Jonathan. The six parties present - African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Allied Peoples Democratic (APM), and Social Democratic Party (SDP) - pledged to cooperate in their efforts to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential poll.

The purpose of the meeting was to set the stage for further discussions on an opposition alliance. Convener of G100, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, explained that in 2015, when the ruling party was defeated, parties that were initially distrustful of each other sat down, negotiated, and agreed on how the candidate would emerge before knowing who the candidate would be. He emphasized that this sequence, rather than affection or personal liking, was the secret to their success.

Lukman compared this strategy to similar alliances in other countries, such as Kenya in 2002 and Malaysia in 2018, where opposition parties united to remove ruling parties from power. He stressed that the lesson from these examples is not a moral one, but an arithmetical one - that unity leads to victory.

The opposition parties admitted that they have been defeated not only by their opponents, but also by themselves, due to broken agreements, individuals failing to stay the course, and poorly defined frameworks. Lukman emphasized that if the opposition cannot keep faith with one another, no framework they design will save them. However, if they can, they may not need a framework at all.

The G100 Summit aimed to build a table before negotiating seats around it, rather than asking parties to dissolve or change candidates. The table would be larger than the office everyone assumed they were discussing.