The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said the absence of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, from the G100 opposition summit in Abuja was not significant, insisting that the meeting was focused on political parties and not individual candidates.
The party’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated this on Tuesday during an interview on Arise Television’s Daybreak.
Abdullahi explained that the summit was convened primarily to enable opposition parties to discuss possible areas of collaboration ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“The way we understand it, the summit is more about conversation between political parties rather than conversation among candidates. It’s more about exploring cooperation opportunities among political parties,” he said.
He added that the ADC was fully represented at the meeting by several senior officials, making Atiku’s physical presence unnecessary.
“So it’s not consequential that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was not present. I was there. The party was highly represented. We had like four vice chairmen there at the G100 summit. So ADC was fully represented that we participated in the process,” Abdullahi said.
The G100 summit, which took place on Monday at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, brought together representatives of six opposition parties to deliberate on possible cooperation ahead of the 2027 polls.
The gathering forms part of broader efforts by opposition parties to establish a united political front against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Despite the significance attached to the meeting, a number of leading opposition figures were absent. They included Atiku, Peter Obi, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, as well as representatives of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Some presidential candidates who attended the summit included Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Moses Adebisi of the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA).
The opposition parties have intensified discussions on possible alliances as the 2027 elections approach, with negotiations expected to determine the structure and leadership of any coalition seeking to challenge the APC.
Leave a Reply