*Task US Govt On Timely, Lawful Disclosure Of All Tinubu’s Non-exempt Official Records
THE presidential candidates of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar; Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi; and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, were absent as leaders of six main political parties converged on the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, on Monday, August 31, for the first Summit of Nigeria’s opposition parties to set up a coalition ahead of next year’s general elections.
However, the gathering was attended by other presidential and vice presidential candidates, such as Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and APM’s vice presidential candidate, Lawal Daura, as well as members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and some Board of Trustees (BoT) of the participating parties.
In an opening remark on behalf of the G100, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, proposed a Government of National Competence anchored on a single four-year transition term, which he described as central to the broader framework being canvassed for opposition cooperation.
He said: “The framework before you proposes something more demanding than a merger of ambitions: a Government of National Competence built on competence, integrity, national inclusion, and fair representation of every party that contributes to the effort.”
Lukman said such a government should be “secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter,” stressing that any agreement reached at the Summit must be binding, rather than symbolic.
“This gathering does not need more sincerity. Nigerian politics has never suffered from a shortage of sincere promises. What it has suffered from is promises that nobody could enforce when the person who made them changed his/her mind,” he said.
He said discipline was abandoned in 2023 when opposition votes were split among candidates who jointly polled more than the eventual winner, noting: “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.”
He described the outcome as self-inflicted, rather than the product of any conspiracy, saying: “Nobody stole 13 million votes; we divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be.”
Lukman disclosed that three standing coalition bodies were being proposed- a Central Leadership Committee, comprising national chairmen, national secretaries and presidential and vice presidential candidates, to provide political direction; a Publicity and Communication Committee to coordinate joint messaging; and a Legal Committee to handle legal strategy and coalition-related advice, with the G100 participating only as facilitators and observers.
He further disclosed that five Working Groups, each comprising one representative from every participating party, were to produce working papers within four weeks on a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, a Single-Term Transition Charter, a National Reform Programme, a Framework for Opposition Unity, and a Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate, all to be presented to a second Summit for adoption.
The former All Progressives Congress national vice chairman clarified that the Summit was not asking any party to dissolve, merge or produce a presidential candidate on the day, saying: “That question is not on the agenda of this Summit, and any report that says otherwise will be wrong,” but rather to build “the table” before negotiating “the seats” around it.
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Fred Agbedi, urged opposition leaders to close ranks and replicate the electoral success recorded by the then-opposition APC in 2015.
Agbedi said the Minority Caucus had resolved to partner with the G100 to help streamline the ambitions of opposition parties and pursue a collective victory in 2027.
He warned that Nigeria’s current leadership operated on the belief that “all is fair in politics,” urging party leaders to note this disposition and act accordingly by setting aside personal ambitions for the collective good, saying a fragmented opposition risked another outcome akin to 2023.
Duke expressed readiness to forego his ambition and work with any candidate jointly agreed on by all the participating parties, saying experience has shown that the ego of political leaders often stood in the way of victory for the opposition.
The former Cross River State governor charged all opposition leaders to put their egos aside and work together, noting: “If we think we can go it all alone, then we will fail.”
ADC’s National Vice Chairman (South-South), Usani Uguru Usani, was confident that the coalition would succeed, but cautioned against internal strife among the opposition.
He stated: “There is something that is happening among the opposition people or party; we seem to be attacking ourselves much more than we attack a common enemy, which is not correct.”
APM National Chairman, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, described the Summit as historic, urging party leaders to look beyond individual and party interests, pledging his party’s full commitment to “the project Nigeria.”
Former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, who represented the Tanimu Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) BoT, commended the G100 for the initiative, blaming personal ambition and pecuniary interest for the country’s governance challenges.
Aliyu urged similar cooperation meetings to be replicated at state and local government levels to sustain momentum, noting: “We are not here to pick or to nominate or to tell other parties to not run.
“We are going to lay the foundation that when the time comes, we should be able to say this is the way to go.”
National Chairman of PRP, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, also welcomed the Summit, urging the presidential and vice presidential candidates present to recognise the weight of national expectation on them.
Noting that all six parties represented were facing “an existential threat” through litigation, Baba-Ahmed said: “Our back is against the wall, but we’ll fight back.”
His SDP counterpart, Sadiq Gombe, said the electorate had consistently demonstrated readiness to vote for good governance, citing the 2023 presidential election, where the three leading opposition candidates jointly polled about two-thirds of total votes cast, as well as the recent Osun State governorship election, where he said the ruling party’s heavy deployment of security and financial resources failed to sway the outcome.
He pledged his party’s commitment to the coalition process, “irrespective of whatever,” charging other parties to remain consistent with prior unity accords.
NDC National Chairman, Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, commended the organisers and affirmed his party’s support for the process, which he described as necessary at a time the country was “in a comatose” state under the current leadership.
At the end, the six parties adopted a joint communiqué to commit to a structured process of negotiation on the framework for opposition cooperation ahead of the coming elections, and formally established the committees and working groups proposed by the G100.
The communiqué urged the United States (US) Government to ensure the timely and lawful disclosure of all non-exempt official records concerning President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that bear on legitimate public interest.
It noted an ongoing Freedom of Information Act suit before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, while clarifying that the demand did not presume the contents of any undisclosed record or constitute a finding of wrongdoing.
