A political pressure group, the G-100, has described Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election in Osun State as a template opposition parties can adopt to challenge the All Progressives Congress in the 2027 general elections.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Salihu Lukman, the group congratulated Adeleke and commended the people of Osun State, saying the significance of the election went beyond the governor’s return to office.
According to the G-100, the biggest problem confronting Nigeria’s opposition is not a shortage of popular support but fragmentation among political parties and their leaders.
“The significance of what has happened in Osun goes far beyond the re-election of one governor. Osun has provided a template for 2027,” the group said.
It urged opposition leaders who believe Nigeria needs a different political direction in 2027 to demonstrate the same “courage, restraint and willingness to compromise” that it said contributed to the Osun outcome.
The group argued that political actors who supported Adeleke demonstrated that individual ambitions could be subordinated to a broader democratic objective.
“For weeks now, the G-100 has argued that Nigeria’s opposition does not suffer from a shortage of popular support. Its greatest challenge is fragmentation,” it said.
The organisation said the Osun experience showed the potential strength of opposition cooperation when parties and politicians are willing to combine their structures and supporters around a common objective.
“The governorship candidates who stepped down and supported Governor Adeleke were each entitled to pursue their own ambitions. They chose instead to ask a more important question: what outcome best serves the people and strengthens the democratic cause?” the statement added.
The group urged opposition leaders to ask the same question at the national level as preparations for the 2027 elections gather momentum.
“Nigeria is bigger than any candidate, any ambition and any political party,” it said.
Adeleke contested the Osun governorship election on the platform of the Accord Party after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party following prolonged internal disputes in the state.
The election also featured Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, while Najeem Salaam contested on the platform of the African Democratic Congress. Adeleke’s campaign received support from political figures and groups that moved across party lines ahead of the poll.
The APC, for its part, mounted an aggressive campaign to unseat the incumbent, with its campaign leadership expressing confidence that Oyebamiji would emerge victorious.
The G-100 said the national opposition must now move beyond individual calculations and begin negotiations aimed at producing a credible and broad-based alternative ahead of 2027.
“Osun has shown the pathway. The task now is to take that spirit of cooperation to the national stage,” the group said.
