Salihu Lukman, convener of the G100 political pressure group, says opposition parties seeking an alliance against the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, may unveil a consensus presidential candidate for the 2027 election just days before the poll.
Mr Lukman, a former APC National Vice Chairman, disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme.
He said the parties involved in the negotiations were committed to the process and were taking steps to build the trust needed to agree on a single candidate.
“I can tell you categorically, and my confidence about that comes from what I see in the leadership of the parties: they are committed and they are working, taking all the steps necessary,” he said.
He added that the announcement could come months, weeks or just days before the election.
“So it could be two months, some weeks to the election, or a few days to the election; they will come out and tell Nigerians this is the direction, and everybody will queue,” he said.
Mr Lukman said the alliance-building effort had expanded beyond the six political parties initially involved, adding that the parties were reaching out to others to broaden the opposition coalition.
“They are also working to expand; they are reaching out to other parties,” he said.
The G100 was formed to encourage opposition parties to unite following an all-opposition summit in Ibadan in April 2026, where participants resolved to work towards fielding a consensus candidate against the APC.
Mr Lukman said the political parties and their presidential candidates had since taken ownership of the process, moving beyond the initial efforts of the pressure group.
“When the parties owned the process we had started and took it beyond, took it out of our hands and began to engage each other based on the need to develop the kind of confidence they need to trust one another,” he said.
He identified the lack of trust among the parties and their candidates as the biggest obstacle to reaching an agreement.
“The trust deficit among even the parties and the candidates” remains a major challenge, he said.
According to him, a summit held on August 31 agreed to establish five working groups, one of which would coordinate efforts to select a single presidential candidate.
He said each participating party would nominate representatives to the group, either through its presidential candidate or the party itself, under agreed terms of reference.
Mr Lukman explained that the arrangement was designed to ensure that decisions remained in the hands of the parties and their candidates rather than outsiders.
“The collegiate is basically about ensuring that both the parties and their candidates are the ones taking the decisions, and at the same time the people doing the work are people who have the mandate of both the parties and the candidates, not anybody from outside,” he said.
Asked how the alliance would address the reluctance of supporters of Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and the Kwankwasiyya movement to abandon their preferred candidates, Mr Lukman warned that rigid positions could undermine the opposition’s chances.
“Taking a hardline position, a rigid position, is almost like working for the APC and the Tinubu government at this point,” he said.
He said many signatories to the G100’s open letter supported either Mr Obi or Mr Atiku but had been reminded that the country’s interests should take precedence over individual ambitions.
According to him, the group has consistently maintained that “the country is superior to any individual”.
Mr Lukman also cited comments by John Cardinal Onaiyekan on Channels Television, arguing that opposition parties could not expect to defeat a ruling party if they divided their votes among several candidates.
“The arithmetic is simple: you can’t split votes five ways and expect victory in one of you,” he said.
On the challenge of reconciling the different manifestos of the participating parties, Mr Lukman said the alliance was not seeking to merge their policy documents but to develop a common minimum programme for implementation by an opposition-led government if it wins the 2027 election.
He cited differences in policy proposals, including the Social Democratic Party candidate’s pledge to introduce a starting petrol pump price of N300 per litre, as an example of the issues requiring agreement.
“It’s not harmonising manifestos; it’s basically to come up with a minimum programme of action which the government to be produced post-2027 will prioritise implementing,” he said.
He said all presidential candidates involved in the process would commit to the programme before the election to avoid disagreements over its implementation if any of them emerged as the consensus candidate.
“In the event that any of them emerge as the candidate there is no debate,” he said.
Mr Lukman expressed confidence that the parties would not have to start developing their policy positions from scratch, noting that the various candidates had already undertaken work on their campaign programmes.
“I’m sure the Peter Obi campaign has also done some work; I am also sure Prince Adewole Adebayo and all the other candidates have also done their own work,” he said.
He said the eventual candidate could emerge from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), another political party or a new party formed through an alliance.
“It could be ADC, it could be any other party, or it could be an alliance that will produce a new party,” he said.
Mr Lukman, however, said he was not seeking political office, either through election or appointment.
“I don’t have ambition to contest election and I don’t have ambition to hold any appointive or elective office,” he said.