G100 Names Focal Areas, Participants for Nigeria Opposition Summit

In a statement issued on Thursday on behalf of the coalition and signed by Salihu Moh. Lukman, the Summit, convened under the theme "A Framework for Opposition Cooperation and Coordination, will bring together the leadership of Nigeria's principal opposition political parties to begin a structured negotiation on the terms, institutions and principles upon which they may cooperate ahead of the 2027 general election. Among the proposals before the Summit, the G100 said, will be the establishment of structures to facilitate negotiations and cooperation, including five specialised Working Groups.

Subject to the decisions of the participating parties, these bodies will be mandated to develop, within four weeks, the principal documents and agreements required to give institutional form to opposition cooperation. The statement listed expected participants as National Chairmen, party leaders and members of the National Working Committees of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP); Presidential Candidates and Running Mates of the participating political parties; and G100 signatories and members of the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives. The statement said the gathering followed the G100's publication, on August 2, of the "Doctrine of a Necessary Democratic Opposition, and several weeks of direct consultations with the leadership of the six opposition parties.

Those consultations, it said, culminated in a shared briefing titled "A Framework for Opposition Cooperation and Coordination, which identified areas of convergence among the participating parties while recognising their distinct histories, identities and political interests. At the centre of the consultations, according to the statement, was a common recognition of the need for a credible, organised and competitive democratic opposition, alongside a willingness to engage the difficult questions that meaningful cooperation ahead of 2027 will require. "Cooperation does not require any party to disappear into another.

The first question before party leaders is not who leads the ticket. It is what we are, together, prepared to do for this country, the statement said. The G100 said the first summit is not intended to resolve questions of presidential candidacy or the final form opposition cooperation may take in a single sitting.

Its immediate purpose, the statement explained, is more fundamental — to establish and authorise a formal architecture through which those questions can be negotiated collectively, transparently and in good faith. Each participating political party is expected to attend with a delegation of leaders and key stakeholders drawn from its national leadership and other relevant constituencies, the statement said, adding that these delegations will participate fully in deliberations to ensure the process extends beyond principal party leaders and draws on a broader range of political experience, perspectives and interests.