A leader of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Salihu Lukman, has urged opposition political leaders to put aside their personal ambitions and unite ahead of the 2027 presidential election to avoid repeating the mistakes that contributed to the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s victory in 2023.
Lukman said the opposition could once again squander an opportunity to defeat the ruling party if its leaders failed to reach an agreement on a common candidate and strategy.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, he said the recent Court of Appeal decision upholding the participation of the ADC and four other political parties in the 2027 elections was not enough to guarantee victory.
According to him, the major challenge facing the opposition was not the legal battles but the inability of its leaders to reconcile their individual political ambitions.
“Let me be very honest with you. As a Nigerian, I’m not excited by all this development because, if you recall, as an advocate of the coalition and the unity of the opposition leaders, when we started about two years ago, the objectives were basically two: to get the opposition leaders united and to also build a party that can hold elected leaders accountable,” Lukman said.
He warned that the opposition could repeat the events of the 2023 election if its leaders failed to work together.
“As it is today, no matter what comes out of the judicial process, I see us going back to 2023, repeating almost the same things that happened in 2023 and expecting a miracle to happen,” he added.
In the 2023 presidential election, APC candidate Bola Tinubu polled about 8.8 million votes to defeat Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar, who scored approximately 6.98 million votes, while Labour Party candidate Peter Obi received about 6.1 million votes.
Some political analysts have argued that a unified opposition ticket could have posed a stronger challenge to the APC.
Atiku is now seeking the presidency under the ADC, while Obi is the presidential candidate of the newly formed Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Lukman said Nigerians were increasingly concerned about the state of governance and expected the opposition to provide a credible alternative.
“As a Nigerian, and I’m sure I’ll be speaking the minds of many Nigerians, we are all troubled by the fact that here we are, faced with an APC government and an elected leadership that is hardly accountable. By the day, by the hour, things keep getting worse,” he said.
He added that the opposition’s failure to unite could leave voters without a convincing alternative.
“The 2027 election may end up with us mismanaging ourselves as an opposition. I have appeared on this programme several times and each time the issue has been raised about how we are going to reconcile the personal ambitions of individual leaders in the opposition. That appears to be the key issue,” Lukman said.
He questioned whether opposition politicians were prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to defeat the APC.
“We must ask ourselves: Is the personal ambition of leaders in the opposition far more important than the destiny of the country? Are they unable to make the personal sacrifices required to unite and rescue Nigeria?” he asked.
Lukman admitted that he was frustrated with the current direction of opposition politics but said he remained committed to seeing the APC defeated in 2027.
“Look, as a person, I don’t have any restraint. I want the APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu defeated out of government in 2027. But the way we are going about it, I’m frustrated. I must be honest,” he said.
He disclosed that consultations had begun among politicians and other stakeholders to push opposition leaders back to the negotiating table.
“We have begun consultations with many like-minded people, both within the opposition and beyond, to come up with an independent initiative because we have to challenge the opposition leadership. It’s either they unite, or they stop wasting the time of Nigerians,” he said.
Lukman maintained that any opposition candidate adopted for the 2027 election should emerge through an objective and transparent process acceptable to all participating parties.
“If it is an ADC candidate that will be adopted, there has to be objective criteria that will convince everybody that it is the right way to go. If it is another party’s candidate, there also has to be objective criteria,” he said.
On policy, the ADC leader said opposition figures had already undertaken substantial work towards developing alternative programmes for the country.
He disclosed that he served as secretary of a 50-member committee that worked on policy proposals but stressed that producing policy documents alone would not address Nigeria’s governance challenges.
“The real issue is not making declarative statements about policy. The real issue is whether candidates, when elected, will be accountable enough to implement those policies,” he said.
Lukman further acknowledged that while he believed the Tinubu administration had performed poorly, opposition leaders still needed to convince Nigerians that they could provide better governance.
“I cried out on Thursday that Nigerians are confronted with the choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. Yes, President Tinubu and the APC have, for all intents and purposes, messed things up, but the confidence with which we can say our own leaders are better is also weak,” he said.
He therefore called for a renewed opposition negotiation process, saying Nigeria’s interests should take precedence over the ambitions of individual politicians.
“We need to challenge ourselves. If 2027 is going to produce the kind of result that will begin to pull this country out of the mess we are in today, then we need a new round of negotiation,” Lukman said.
