Insiders say former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi raised concerns over lack of clarity on power rotation after opposition leaders agreed to field a single candidate for 2027

Opposition leaders who gathered in Ibadan, Oyo State, at the weekend for a high-profile political summit aimed at shaping a united front ahead of the 2027 general elections agreed in principle to present a single presidential candidate, but the outcome has already sparked quiet disagreements among key stakeholders.

The summit, formally known as the All Opposition Political Party Leaders Summit, was chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and hosted by Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde. It brought together prominent political figures including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, among others.

At the end of the meeting, a communiqué—now referred to as the “Ibadan Declaration”—announced an agreement among participants to work towards fielding a single opposition presidential candidate to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

While the declaration was initially seen as a step toward opposition unity, sources familiar with the discussions say underlying disagreements were not resolved.

According to insiders who spoke to TheCable, Obi left the summit unconvinced by the final position, particularly over the absence of a clear framework on zoning, the long-standing political principle of rotating the presidency between Nigeria’s regions.

The sources said Obi’s concern was not the agreement on a joint candidate, but the failure to clearly define where that candidate would come from. The omission, they said, left a critical gap in the opposition’s unity plan.

One insider described the outcome as a political compromise that avoided key structural questions.

“The summit ended politically as it was designed to. They did not achieve what they wanted. It ended without addressing the basic issue,” the source was quoted as saying.

Zoning remains a sensitive issue within opposition circles. Obi and several southern political actors have consistently argued that equity and power rotation must guide any coalition arrangement ahead of 2027. Without such clarity, they warn, internal trust could be undermined.

Obi has previously maintained that unresolved zoning questions contributed to instability within earlier coalition discussions involving the African Democratic Congress (ADC)-aligned bloc.

However, northern political figures, including Atiku Abubakar, are also expected to play significant roles in the emerging opposition structure, creating a delicate balance that the Ibadan meeting did not formally address.

Although Rotimi Amaechi has publicly supported zoning the presidential ticket to the South, the final communiqué from the summit did not adopt any explicit position on the matter.

Following the meeting, Obi has remained publicly silent on the Ibadan Declaration. Unlike his usual active engagement on social media, his verified X account has not issued any statement on the summit, instead sharing unrelated posts, including images of him playing tennis during his visit to Ibadan.

Insiders say this silence reflects his reservations about the outcome.

“If they had gone further to address zoning clearly, it would have been a different outcome. What they have now is just a political statement about one candidate without resolving the fundamentals,” another source said.

Despite the public show of unity, sources further claim that key political actors are still pursuing separate calculations behind the scenes, with Obi reportedly maintaining communication lines with other political blocs while awaiting further legal and political developments within opposition realignments.

For now, while the Ibadan summit has projected an image of opposition unity, the unresolved questions around zoning, leadership ambition, and trust continue to cast uncertainty over the proposed single-candidate strategy for 2027.