ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s opposition parties gathered in Abuja on Monday to seek greater cooperation ahead of the 2027 general election, as President Bola Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress consolidates its campaign machinery for his bid for a second term. Representatives of six opposition parties attended the G-100-organized summit at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, where organizers said the immediate objective was not to select a presidential candidate but to establish a framework for cooperation and coordination among parties seeking to compete against the APC.
The gathering comes as Nigeria’s election season moves into a more active phase. Formal campaigning for the Jan. 16 presidential and National Assembly elections began Aug. 19, with Tinubu facing a field that includes prominent opposition figures such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra Gov. Peter Obi. The APC enters the race with a significant organizational advantage: It controls the federal government, the National Assembly and 31 of Nigeria’s 36 governorships. APC governors have publicly backed Tinubu’s re-election and pledged to mobilize support across their states.
Opposition leaders face the more difficult task of deciding whether political cooperation can eventually produce a common presidential challenger. G-100 convener Salihu Lukman said Monday’s summit was designed to create a mechanism for parties to work together rather than immediately settle the presidential ticket. The group also proposed a “Government of National Competence” built around a single four-year transition term. Atiku and Obi remain major figures in the opposition, but their respective camps have shown little indication so far that either is prepared to surrender presidential ambitions, leaving unresolved the question of who could lead a unified challenge.
The opposition’s calculations are shaped heavily by the 2023 election, when Tinubu won the presidency with 36.6% of the vote. Atiku received about 29%, while Obi secured roughly 25%, meaning the two leading opposition candidates together attracted substantially more votes than Tinubu but competed separately. Nigeria does not require a presidential candidate to win more than 50% of the national vote; the Constitution instead requires the winner to receive the most votes while meeting a minimum geographic spread across the federation. Opposition strategists therefore argue that another fragmented contest could strengthen Tinubu’s path to re-election, although combining political parties does not necessarily mean their voters would automatically support the same candidate.
The campaign is also expected to become a referendum on Tinubu’s economic and security record. His administration argues that difficult reforms introduced since 2023, including removing the fuel subsidy and overhauling the foreign exchange system, have improved government finances and laid the groundwork for longer-term economic stability. Opposition politicians have instead focused on the cost of living, unemployment and insecurity, arguing that macroeconomic improvements have yet to translate into sufficient relief for ordinary Nigerians. INEC, meanwhile, has moved ahead with candidate nominations and other preparations for the nationwide election, including the use of its electronic Candidate Nomination Portal.
The election will be closely watched beyond Nigeria because Africa’s most populous country is a major oil producer, one of the continent’s largest economies and the dominant political power in the Economic Community of West African States. Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 after decades punctuated by military governments, and its 2015 election produced the country’s first peaceful transfer of presidential power from a ruling party to the opposition. With several West African countries experiencing coups and democratic setbacks in recent years, another competitive Nigerian election will carry regional significance. For Tinubu, the task is converting the APC’s formidable political organization into voter support; for the opposition, Monday’s Abuja summit underscored an equally important challenge — turning dissatisfaction with the government into a coherent alternative capable of winning a national election.
