The camps of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, have rejected the push by a political pressure group, G-100, for opposition parties to field a single presidential candidate against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that while both camps recognise the need for greater cooperation among opposition parties, neither appears prepared to surrender its presidential ambition as the proposed opposition coalition takes shape.

The development could complicate the efforts of G-100, a group convened by former Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman, which has been advocating a united opposition front as the most realistic strategy for defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress.

However, the positions emerging from the camps of Atiku and Obi suggest that reaching an agreement on a single presidential candidate may prove more difficult than mobilising the opposition parties around a common agenda.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH on Saturday, Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the former vice president had moved beyond discussions about merely convening an opposition summit.

He noted that the ultimate decision would be left to Nigerians based on the policy alternatives presented by the presidential candidates.

“We have moved beyond this conversation. Atiku has brought to the table the policy alternatives, including what he would do with petroleum subsidy if elected. His policies are about the people and they are not hidden. Come January 2027, Nigerians will make their choice. This is where we are today,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to assess the presidential candidates on the basis of their policy proposals when the time comes, insisting that Atiku remained the most prepared opposition politician to take over the affairs of the country.

Obi’s camp also believes the former Anambra governor has the credentials and political support required to challenge Tinubu.

The former Anambra State governor, who contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, has since joined the NDC as the opposition realignment ahead of 2027 gathers momentum.

While the NDC has welcomed the G-100 initiative, it rejected the suggestion that the opposition must necessarily present a single candidate to defeat the APC.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said the group deserved commendation for seeking to unite the opposition, but argued that the country’s electoral history demonstrated that an incumbent could be defeated without all opposition parties merging behind one presidential candidate.

“Under a multi-party democracy, it is possible for one of the parties to defeat a sitting president. It happened in 2015 and it was only fragments of the All Progressive Grand Alliance and the Peoples Democratic Party that teamed up to form an alliance with the All Progressives Congress and they were able to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan.

“So, the NDC is not going into the 2027 election with that self-defeatist approach that the opposition cannot defeat the APC unless all the parties come together,” Director said.

While rejecting the argument that a single candidate is the only route to victory, the NDC spokesman made it clear that his party had already settled on who it considered the strongest candidate should the opposition eventually agree to a coalition presidential ticket.

On the question of a consensus candidate, Director said, “We have made the point clear that we should choose the best candidate in the opposition and we in the NDC believe that Peter Obi is the best if he is allowed to lead the coalition. This is our position.”

The competing positions underline one of the central difficulties confronting the opposition ahead of 2027: whether the parties can agree not only on the need to work together, but also on who should lead the proposed alliance.

The disagreement is particularly significant given that Atiku and Obi are among the leading opposition figures positioning themselves for the presidential contest.

Both have substantial political followings, but their emergence from different political platforms means that any consensus arrangement involving either man would require difficult negotiations over the presidential ticket, party structure and the distribution of political interests within the proposed coalition.

The G-100 has maintained that the overriding objective is to prevent the fragmentation of opposition votes and provide Nigerians with a credible alternative to the APC.

The group’s proposed August 31 summit is expected to provide a further test of whether the various opposition interests can move from broad agreement on cooperation to concrete decisions on structure, platform and leadership.

However, efforts to obtain an update on the preparations for the summit were unsuccessful, as Lukman neither answered calls to his telephone nor responded to messages sent to him on WhatsApp. (Sunday PUNCH)

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