Former Kano State Governor and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ibrahim Shekarau, has asserted that unseating President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election would only be possible through a coalition formed by political parties — not individuals.
Shekarau, speaking with journalists, stressed the need for opposition parties to come together and build a formidable alliance ahead of the next general elections, drawing lessons from past attempts at coalition-building in Nigeria’s political history.
“Some people did not perceive my message correctly. For the sake of clarity, I did not say the coalition could not defeat Tinubu in 2027. What I said was that a coalition of ‘individuals’ rather than parties could not,” Shekarau clarified.
He recalled the efforts made in 2011 when the now-defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) explored the possibility of forming a coalition to unseat then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
“I was a principal actor in the 2011 attempted coalition, being a Presidential candidate of the ANPP then. We had several meetings at President Tinubu’s residence in Abuja in 2011. At a point, (late former President Muhammadu) Buhari, (Nuhu) Ribadu and I, as the Presidential candidates of CPC, ACN and ANPP respectively, met at Buhari’s residence in Abuja to further discuss the coalition in 2011. But it did not work. So, each of us went into the election separately under our respective parties,” he said.
Shekarau noted that the experience from that failed attempt eventually laid the groundwork for the successful merger of opposition parties in 2015, which brought the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power. He emphasized that the success of the 2015 merger came because negotiations were led by political parties, not individual presidential hopefuls.
“This time, however, we employed a different approach. We pursued the process, not as individual candidates/aspirants or those who wanted to become this or that, but as representatives of our respective parties. The three parties each set up a 21-member committee, and I had the privilege of leading the ANPP committee,” he explained.
Shekarau maintained that replicating such a party-driven strategy is the only viable path if opposition forces aim to dislodge the APC-led government in the next election cycle.
