2027: Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso resume merge dialogue

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Nigeria’s three leading opposition figures, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso, are discussing a potential merger to address the nation’s issues of hunger and insecurity ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deputy national spokesperson, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who revealed this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program on Monday.

He mentioned that the opposition candidates from the last election, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) are considering setting aside personal interests to form a united front capable of challenging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

Abdullahi noted that if the PDP’s previous leadership had managed internal conflicts more effectively, prominent figures like former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, Kwankwaso, and Obi would still be key members of the PDP.

In that scenario, he believes the party could have defeated the APC’s Bola Tinubu in the last election.

“We’ve lost Kwankwaso, we’ve lost Peter Obi, imagine if they were still with us. We would have won the election,” Abdullahi said.

“The APC claims they defeated us by just over one million votes.

Any one of those names would have easily closed that gap, and we’d be in power today. Nigerians wouldn’t be facing the despair and despondency we see now.”

When asked about efforts to bring Obi, Kwankwaso, Wike, and others back to the PDP, Abdullahi confirmed that discussions are ongoing.

“You will see Peter Obi talking with Atiku; you will see him meeting with [Nasir] El-Rufai. Managing a party is challenging, but we are doing our best in these difficult circumstances. Rest assured, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve learnt our lessons, albeit the hard way.”

In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu secured victories in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states and garnered significant support in several others, amassing 8,794,726 votes, nearly two million more than his closest competitor, Atiku Abubakar, who received 6,984,520 votes.

Obi, running for president for the first time, earned an unprecedented 6,101,533 votes, while Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor, finished fourth with 1,496,687 votes, winning in his home state.

Interestingly, both Obi and Kwankwaso were PDP members just months before the election but left the party due to irreconcilable differences.

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