Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party’s Peter Obi and former Governor Nasir El-Rufai of the Social Democratic Party concluded months of discussions about unifying on Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The leaders agreed to join forces under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the next election scheduled for 2027, said the people who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been announced officially. The ADC is a relatively unknown party whose presidential candidate won 82,000 votes at the last election.
It’s unclear how the coalition will resolve its major sticking point from last time: who will be the party’s presidential candidate.
Nigeria’s unwritten tradition of rotating power between its northern and southern regions clouds the path of Abubakar, a northerner, whose sixth attempt at the presidency in 2023 was hampered by southern voters going to Obi, who is from that region.
The Labour Party leader has previously ruled out any merger in which he would run as a deputy to Atiku — as he did in the 2023 election — and he may fail to secure the backing of his young supporters if he reverses that decision.
