BREAKING: G100 Proposes Single Four-Year Term for Opposition Gov’t

The G100 has proposed a Government of National Competence based on a single four-year transition term for Nigeria’s opposition parties.

Mallam Salihu Moh. Lukman presented the proposal on Monday at the Summit of Nigeria’s Opposition Political Parties held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

Representatives of the African Democratic Congress, Allied Peoples Movement, Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party and Social Democratic Party attended the summit. Presidential and vice-presidential candidates and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives were also present.

Lukman said the proposed government would rest on competence, integrity, national inclusion and fair representation of every party that joins the effort. He said it would follow a disciplined Four-Year National Reset Programme.

“The Framework before you propose something more demanding than a merger of ambitions: a Government of National Competence, built on competence, integrity, national inclusion, and fair representation of every party that contributes to the effort,” he said.

He added that the arrangement must be secured by a political commitment to a single four-year term written into an enforceable Transition Charter.

Lukman stressed that the commitment must go beyond verbal promises. “We want to underline the word ‘enforceable.’ This gathering does not need more sincerity. Nigerian politics has never suffered from a shortage of sincere promises. What it has suffered from is promises that nobody could enforce when the person who made them changed his/her mind,” he said.

He insisted that any agreement reached must be written, witnessed and carry consequences.

Lukman recalled the history of opposition politics since 1999. He said the opposition contested the presidency divided in 2003, 2007 and 2011 but achieved victory in 2015 after parties agreed on rules of engagement. He said that discipline was abandoned in 2023, when opposition votes were split.

“The winner took just under nine million votes. One opposition candidate took close to seven million. Another took just over six million. Thirteen million votes on one side of the argument, under nine million on the other. And the side with fewer votes formed the government, lawfully, constitutionally, and entirely predictably,” he said.

On the structure of the proposed cooperation, Lukman disclosed that three standing coalition bodies are being proposed. These are a Central Leadership Committee, a Publicity and Communication Committee and a Legal Committee.

He said five Working Groups, each with one representative from every participating party, would produce working papers within four weeks. The papers would cover a National Covenant for Democratic Renewal, a Single-Term Transition Charter, a National Reform Programme, a Framework for Opposition Unity and a Roadmap to a Common Presidential Candidate.

Lukman clarified that the summit was not asking any party to dissolve or any candidate to stand down. “It is not asking any party to dissolve. It is not asking any party to disappear into another party. It is not asking any candidate to stand down this morning… That question is not on the agenda of this Summit, and any report that says otherwise will be wrong,” he said.

He urged party leaders to approach the process with candour. He warned that concealed positions had undermined previous coalition efforts.

“A hard line declared this morning is a problem that can be solved between now and the Second Summit. A hard line concealed this morning is a coalition that collapses in October, and that one will collapse in public too, only later, and at far greater cost to everybody in this room,” he said.

Lukman said the G100 convened the summit without backing any particular candidate or party. “We are not promoting any candidate, no preference among the six parties in this hall, and nothing to gain from one of you rather than another.

“Our only interest is the one stated in the Doctrine we published on August 2: that a democracy is sustained not merely by holding elections, but by the credible possibility of an alternative government,” he said.

He said the proposed framework would be developed further by the working groups and presented to a second summit for consideration and adoption.