By Harry Awurumibe
As opposition political parties in Nigeria have resolved to work towards presenting a single presidential candidate for the 2027 general election as part of efforts to strengthen collaboration to challenge the dominance of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the race, all eyes are on the political heavyweights to bury their egos and political ambitions and go the way of Senegalese opposition politicians in the 2024 presidential election which ushered in the incumbent youthful president Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye.
Aware that the outgone president Macky Sall was determined to either install a stooge or elongate his tenure in power, Senegal’s opposition politicians rallied around a 44-year-old Faye, who had a momentum of youth-centered followership to fly the flag of the opposition party in place of former presidential candidate Ousmane Sonko, who adopted Faye to run in his place having contested previously and failed.
This singular action by the opposition groups and also the landmark judgement delivered by the Senegalese Constitutional Council in 2024 ensured that Senegal is currently enjoying political stability and economic growth.
Senegal, like the current situation in Nigeria was going through political turmoil but on February 15, 2024, Senegal’s Constitutional Council (equivalent to Nigeria’s Supreme Court) ruled that the postponement of the presidential election from February 25 to December 15, 2024, by then president Macky Sall and the National Assembly was unconstitutional.
The Council cancelled the decree postponing the vote, calling it a violation of the constitution, and ordered the election to be held “as soon as possible”, a directive Macky Sall obeyed, and the opposition won the election with a wide margin just as the Senegalese are better for it today.
However, the opposition politicians in Nigeria who gathered in the ancient city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, at the weekend to chart a course for their political survival ahead of the 2027 general election should borrow a leaf from their Senegalese counterparts who came together in 2024 to oust the ruling party from power by handing their presidential ticket to the most popular and youth-centered then candidate Faye.
In deed, the resolution reached by opposition political parties, which is contained in a communiqué they issued at the end of a national summit held on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo state, has given many Nigerians hope that the country may not slide into a one-party state after all.
In what they termed the “Ibadan Declaration,” the opposition political parties accused the APC of actions capable of undermining multi-party democracy, vowing to resist any attempt to impose a one-party state.
They also dismissed suggestions that incumbent president Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu could emerge as a consensus candidate and win the 2027 without any contest, insisting they would field candidates across all levels of the elections.
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They, however, said discussions are ongoing to agree on a single presidential flagbearer to be backed by all participating opposition parties. This is where the true test of their resolve to forge together to confront the behemoth called APC and its flagbearer (Tinubu) in 2027 presidential election.
But Nigeria’s opposition politicians have their work cut out for them as they aim to field a single presidential candidate for the 2027 race. It will not be an easy task for them to arrive at a consensus candidate who will be supported by the opposition parties.
Nevertheless, the task is not insurmountable if only those who have presidential ambitions will look at themselves in the mirror and say, “Let me put my presidential ambition on hold for four year for the greater good of the suffering Nigerian masses” who have gone into abject poverty due to bad policies of the APC-led government.
This is even as the opposition groups have been presented with a golden opportunity to recreate the Senegalese scenario where they have to move away from politics of selfishness to show courage by picking someone who has the current political momentum as was then youth-centered candidate Faye.
Give Us Peter Obi For President 2027
Without prejudice to any of the political gladiators with huge egos and political ambitions, the choice of the single presidential candidate for 2027 must be a person with proven track records of competence, good governance, transparency, honesty, prudent financial management, empathy, God-fearing, mental capacity, wellness, and political sagacity.
Additionally, the opposition single candidate must be a person who has no political baggage such as having corruption cases and being chased around by the anti-corruption agencies such as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (EFCC); Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB); Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU); and Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as well as National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Above all, the opposition single candidate choice must be a person who has youth-centered support and organic followership across the country and even abroad and who has demonstrated the capacity to stay the course no matter the envisaged political turbulence ahead.
For the avoidance of doubts, Mr. Peter Obi ticks the boxes as he commands a cult-followership since he declared his intention to run for the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2022 ahead of the 2023 presidential election which he contested under the umbrella of Labour Party.
In 2023, Obi’s political machine, which was taunted as “only four persons tweeting in a room,” raked in 6 million plus votes nationwide even without Labour Party having sitting Governors, National Assembly, States Assembly members and Local Government Area Chairmen and Councillors.
Powered by the Obidient Movement, a youth-centered, self-sponsored group, Obi, who has organic supporters in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, swept the polls in the six South East states of Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi respectively.
In fact, in the 2023 general election, Obi’s Labour Party won the presidential election in 11 states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Key states secured by LP’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, included Lagos, Nasarawa, Delta, Plateau, Edo, Cross River, and Abuja (FCT).
States Won by Peter Obi in the 2023 Presidential Race):
Abia State
Anambra State
Enugu State
Imo State
Ebonyi State
Nasarawa State
Delta State
Plateau State
Edo State
Cross River State
Lagos State
Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
Obi’s also competed strongly in other states, notably taking significant votes in Benue, Adamawa, and Taraba states despite the alleged manipulations of the presidential election as the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Professor Mahmood Yakubu failed to deliver on some of the promises made as the upload of results of the presidential election had a glitch, according to the Commission.
After the election went the way Obi did not like and fighting for the reversal up to the Supreme Court, the former Anambra State Governor has continued to wax stronger politically as he has continued to engage and consult widely as well as building political bridges across Nigeria.
He has also continued his philanthropic gestures by donating hundreds of millions of naira to charities, including supporting schools, hospitals, and other entities with huge sums of his personal money.
With the above impressive run in the 2023 presidential election and his current approval ratings among Nigerians, it will be a very big mistake if any political party like his African Democratic Congress (ADC) in particular or opposition political parties in general should close their eyes to the popular candidate that they will not spend too much money campaigning for him because most Nigerians, especially the youths and women will volunteer to campaign for Peter Obi anytime any day.
Let ADC and opposition political parties nominate Mr. Peter Obi, as the presidential candidate for 2027 race, and see Obi’s big win like Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola’s victory of June 12, 1993, presidential election.
*** Harry Awurumibe, is a Public Affairs analyst.
