At G100 Summit, Opposition Parties Moot Recreating 2015 Experience to Oust Tinubu
• ADC, APM, PRP, SDP others pledge to cooperate
•Say division will yield victory to APC
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Nigeria’s main opposition political parties met at a summit yesterday in Abuja, with a proposition to re-enact the 2015 alliance experience in a bid to defeat President Bola Tinubu at the 2027 presidential poll.
At the meeting summoned by the civil societies groups under the aegis of G100, six political parties pledged to repeat the alliance strategy that was used to defeat then President Goodluck Jonathan of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), the Tanimu Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Allied Peoples Democratic (APM), and Social Democratic Party (PDP) pledged to cooperate ahead of next year’s presidential election.
They said the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to set the stage for further discussions on an opposition alliance.
In his opening address, convener of G100, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, said, “For a brief period between 2013 and 2015, something different happened. Parties that had every reason to distrust one another sat in rooms like this one and did the unglamorous work.
“They negotiated. They wrote things down. They agreed on how the candidate would emerge before they knew who the candidate would be. And in 2015, for the first time in the history of this country, a sitting president was defeated at the polls and handed over power peacefully.
“We want to be careful about how we describe that, because it is often described sentimentally, and it was not a sentimental thing. Those men and women were not friends.
“Several of them did not particularly like each other, and some of them have spent the years since proving it. What they had was not affection.
“What they had was sequence. They agreed on the rules before they knew the outcome. That is the entire secret, and it is not a secret at all.”
Lukman continued, “And then, in 2023, we unlearned it. You know the figures better than we do. The winner took just under nine million votes. One opposition candidate took close to seven million. Another took just over six million.
“Thirteen million votes on one side of the argument, under nine million on the other. And the side with fewer votes formed the government, lawfully, constitutionally, and entirely predictably.”
Lukman declared, “Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, that is not a conspiracy. Nobody stole 13 million votes. We divided them ourselves, in public and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be.
“This is not only a Nigerian lesson. In Kenya, in 2002, a party that had governed for 39 years was removed, not by a new idea, but by an opposition that finally agreed to be one opposition.
“In Malaysia in 2018, a coalition that had governed for 61 years was removed in much the same way, by people who had been each other’s prosecutors and each other’s prisoners.
“In neither case did the opposition win because it had become more virtuous. It won because it had become one.
“So, the lesson is not a moral lesson. It is an arithmetical one. And arithmetic, unlike sentiment, does not improve on its own.”
Lukman stated, “Let us say something now that may be less comfortable, and we say it as members of this family, not as visitors to it.
“We are in the habit of explaining our defeats by pointing outwards, at the ruling party, at the umpire, at the courts. Some of those complaints are legitimate, and this Summit is not the place to re-litigate them.
“But if we are honest this morning, we will admit that the opposition in Nigeria has not only been defeated by its opponents. It has, more than once, been defeated by itself.
“By parties that could not keep agreements. By individuals, who could not stay the course. And by frameworks that were not spelt out explicitly.
“We raise this for one reason only. If we cannot keep faith with one another, no framework we design today will save us. And if we can, we may not need much of a framework at all.
“Now let us come to today, and to why the G100 believes this particular morning is worth your time.”
Lukman added, “Over the past weeks, we have sat privately with the leadership of each of the six parties in this room. Those conversations were separate, and they were confidential.
“What you told us was consistent: nobody in this hall disputes the arithmetic. Every leader we met understands what division cost in 2023, and what it will cost again in 2027.
“What has been missing is not analysis. It is a table. That is what is different about this morning. This is the first time in this cycle that these six parties are not being consulted separately, but are sitting together, hearing each other’s conditions directly rather than through intermediaries or newspapers. Whatever else is achieved today, that will have been achieved, and it cannot be undone.
“So let us say very plainly what this Summit is not asking of you, because we would rather say it ourselves than have it whispered in the corridors.”
Clarifying their mission, Lukman said, “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.
“It is not asking anyone to sign away a nomination that his party’s members gave him. And it is not asking you to decide today who leads any ticket. That question is not on the agenda of this summit, and any report that says otherwise will be wrong.
“What we are asking is narrower, and in some ways harder. We are asking you to agree that the table should be built before the seats around it are negotiated. We are asking you to authorise the machinery that will build it. That is all that is before you today.
“And when the table is built, let us be clear about what is on it, because it is larger than the office everyone assumes we are discussing.”
He explained that everything would be done sequentially.
Responding, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Fred Agbedi, said, “We in the House of Representatives minority adopt what the convener has said.
“We need to come together and salvage this country. Unity is our strength and divided we will fail in 2027. We can do what we did in 2015 in 2027. APC did in 2015, with determination we can do in 2027.”
Usani Usani, who represented the national chairman of ADC, said, “It is workable, no one tells the story of failing that failure. We shall ensure we give the idea a chance to succeed.”
Secretary of the Turaki-led PDP Board of Trustees, and former governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, who recounted the economic hardship and insecurity in the country, said all Nigerians were determined to make a genuine and legitimate change by 2027.
National Chairman of PRP, Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, endorsed the idea of the opposition political parties working together.
Ahmed said, “We are here to oust President Tinubu out by 2027. No political party will be able to do it alone There are already efforts to destroy the opposition political parties. This coalition is a sign of hope. We are under attack of the administration that will come by 2027 if we are not United.”
In a communique they all signed, the participating political parties stated, “We agree, as national chairmen and principal leaders of our respective parties, to commit to a structured process of negotiation on the framework for opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 general election.
“This commitment reflects our shared recognition that the challenges confronting our nation, insecurity, the rising cost of living, and the scarcity of jobs and opportunity for our citizens, demand a level of political cooperation that transcends the narrow interests of any single party.
“We AGREE to formally establish the three standing coalition organs proposed in the framework, and to constitute their composition and terms of reference as follows:
“Central Leadership Committee, to provide overall political direction and coordination of the cooperation process, and to serve as the final arbiter on matters referred to it by the Working Groups.
“Publicity and Communication Committee, to manage joint messaging, media engagement, and public communication on behalf of the coalition process.
“Legal Committee, to advise on the legal and constitutional dimensions of the cooperation, and to draft and vet all negotiated instruments arising from the process.”
The communique also stated, “We RESOLVE to constitute five Working Groups, each comprising one nominee from every participating party, and to mandate each Working Group to produce, within four weeks, the following documents:
“National Covenant for Democratic Renewal; Single-Term Transition Charter; National Reform Programme Framework for Opposition Unity; Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate; Each Working Group shall submit its document to the Central Leadership; Committee within its four-week mandate, for consideration ahead of the Second Summit.”
