2027: GG100 Pushes For One Opposition Presidential Candidate, Single-Term Transition Charter, Others

The opposition parties under the aegis of the G-100 initiative, has called for the roadmap to a common presidential candidate, establishing a transparent, credible, fair and time-bound process for the emergence and collective support of one presidential standard-bearer.

Convener of the G-100 and a former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the APC, Salihu Lukman stated this at the Summit of Opposition Political Parties, holding at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

The summit, convened by political pressure group G-100, is aimed at forging a united opposition front ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with participants seeking to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Lukman asked opposition parties to set aside their differences and work towards a common goal of advancing the greater good of Nigeria rather than pursuing individual political interests, adding.

He said summit, “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.”

Lukman said the group is proposing that the process should produce two complementary outcomes – institutions for cooperation and negotiated documents defining the substance of that cooperation.

“First, three standing coalition structures are being proposed to be established. These are: Central Leadership Committee, comprising the National Chairmen, National Secretaries, Presidential Candidates and Vice-Presidential Candidates of participating parties, to provide political direction, negotiate proposals, mobilise party structures and supervise implementation.

“Publicity and Communication Committee, comprising National Publicity Secretaries and Presidential Campaign Spokespersons, to coordinate messaging and joint public interventions.

“Legal Committee, comprising National Legal Advisers and designated legal representatives, to coordinate legal strategy, responses to common legal challenges and advice on coalition arrangements.

“G100 would participate principally with your approval as facilitators and observers, rather than as a substitute for the authority of the political parties,” he stated.

The former Director General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum also said five Working Groups, each comprising one representative from every participating party and facilitated by G100, are being proposed to be mandated to produce Working Papers in critical areas within four weeks for consideration.

They include the National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, defining shared principles, obligations and national purpose; Single-Term Transition Charter, defining the mandate, duration, limitations and safeguards of proposed four-year transition and the National Reform Programme, setting out the coalition’s constitutional, judicial, electoral, federal, economic, security and institutional reform agenda.

Others are the Framework for Opposition Unity, establishing the rules for party cooperation, decision-making, conflict resolution, campaign coordination, election protection and post-election governance and Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate, establishing a transparent, credible, fair and time-bound process for the emergence and collective support of one presidential standard-bearer.

Lukman said these documents should be completed within four weeks and presented to a Second Summit for consideration and adoption subject to approval of the Central Leadership Committee.

According to him, “the immediate objective is not to compel any party to surrender its identity, candidate or legitimate interests. It is to create a credible table around which those interests can be negotiated.

“Party leaders must therefore determine how far they are prepared to cooperate, what concessions they can make, what their non-negotiable positions are, what safeguards they require, and whether they are prepared to support another candidate if that candidate emerges through a process they regard as fair and transparent.

“The success of the process will ultimately depend less on declarations of unity than on the quality of the architecture created to sustain it. The parties must build the table before negotiating the seats, agree the rules before determining the outcome, and recognise throughout that the country is larger than every party, every ambition and every office within it.

“That is why the Framework before you propose 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. It proposes that such a government be bound to a disciplined, time-bound Four-Year National Reset Programme, and that it be secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term, written into an enforceable Transition Charter.

“We want to underline the word “enforceable.” 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. If the parties in this room want an agreement that holds, it must be written, it must be witnessed, and it must have consequences. That is not distrust. That is how serious people do serious business,” he added