The much-hyped opposition alliance to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in January crashed before it took off, with ambassador Reno Omokri declaring the project “dead on arrival.”
What was billed as a defining summit in Abuja ended with empty seats, missing heavyweights, and a chorus of ridicule from the ruling party.
Abuja summit ends in empty chairs
Seven parties gathered under the banner of G-100 to forge a single presidential candidate and even float a one-term presidency. But the two men expected to lead it never showed.
Atiku Abubakar of the ADC and Peter Obi of the NDC stayed away. Their running mates did too.
It was a repeat of the failed Ibadan meeting in April hosted by Governor Seyi Makinde, who also skipped this one.
ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi tried to downplay it on TV, saying the talks covered “areas of cooperation” beyond one candidate. “If it leads to a single candidate, fine. But that is not the main objective,” he said.
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PDP, under Abdulrahman Mohammed, also distanced itself, insisting it had nothing to do with the summit.
APC, Omokri bury the alliance
The APC did not hide its glee. National Secretary Senator Ajibola Basiru said the coalition was like “a maize inside a bottle that hens cannot eat.”
National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka called it a publicity stunt. “The absence of the principal actors was enough to show their move hit the rock before the journey even began,” he said. “They will be roundly rejected at the polls again.”
Omokri went further, blaming ego. Speaking on the City Boy Movement forum, he said Obi and Atiku would never step down for each other.
“Peter Obi has an even larger ego than Waziri Atiku Abubakar. It’s just that Obi has self-esteem issues, so he hides it,” Omokri said. “None of those people is going to step down for the other. So, it’s dead on arrival.”
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Egos, ambition, and Tinubu’s rising stock
With candidates already emerging across parties, Basiru said it was “like closing the stable when the horse has escaped.”
Omokri predicted Tinubu would win again, citing over 30 governors backing him now, $67 billion added to the economy in two years, and programs like NELFUND keeping one million students in school.
“The best predictor of future events is past events,” he said. “If he won with 19 governors and the CBN against him, how much more now?”
For the opposition, the message from Abuja was blunt: ambition beat unity, and the coalition never left the departure lounge.
