On Monday September 7, Peter Obi walked into a campaign office in Wuse II, Abuja, and did something rare in Nigerian presidential politics: he publicly praised a rival contender. Standing beside Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, Obi acknowledged that Makinde was qualified to be president. The gesture was brief, but its implications are large. With the 2027 election approaching and the opposition still divided, the question is whether this moment of courtesy can become the foundation of a serious coalition – or whether it will fade like so many other political photo opportunities. In Abuja’s markets, where traders measure politics in sales rather than slogans, the answer will matter far more than any campaign-office ceremony. SOLA SHITTU writes
Peter Obi, one of Nigeria’s leading opposition politicians and a presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2027 election, walked into the campaign headquarters of another presidential contender, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, in Wuse II, Abuja. Date was Monday 7 September 2O26.
Rather than the familiar political hostility associated with presidential contests, Obi stood beside Makinde and publicly acknowledged that the Oyo governor was qualified to become President of Nigeria.
“Is he qualified to be president? Yes,” Obi said, leaving Nigerians and political observers to ponder the significance of a presidential contender publicly recognising the credentials of another man seeking the same office.
The meeting came at a critical moment. Nigeria’s opposition is once again attempting to construct a political arrangement capable of challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
But unlike 2015, when opposition forces eventually converged around Muhammadu Buhari, today’s opposition is populated by politicians with established national followings and strong presidential ambitions of their own.
That makes the Wuse encounter more than a campaign-office ceremony.
It could be an early indication of whether Nigeria’s opposition has learnt the most important lesson from the 2023 election: that a divided opposition can make an incumbent much harder to defeat.
Makinde’s campaign office, located on Agadez Street in Wuse II, was formally opened as the national headquarters of the Makinde-Daura presidential campaign under the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). The campaign is being promoted under the “Reset Nigeria” agenda.
Obi’s presence attracted attention precisely because he and Makinde are both presidential contenders on different political platforms. Reports from the event said Obi arrived at about 12.20 p.m., joining Makinde, Bauchi State Governor and APM national leader Bala Mohammed, as well as party leaders and supporters.
There was, however, no formal indication that Obi had abandoned his party or endorsed Makinde’s presidential candidature. That distinction matters, but politics is often communicated through gestures as much as through formal declarations.
And Obi’s gesture was clear enough: political differences, he suggested, should not prevent opposition politicians from maintaining relationships.
“We don’t want a politics of quarrel or disagreement. Let our quarrel be about feeding our people,” Obi said at the event.
For a country preparing for another fiercely contested presidential election, the statement could hardly have come at a more appropriate time.
The real question is whether such goodwill can survive the more difficult stage of opposition politics – the negotiation over who should lead.
That is where Wuse Market enters the story. The market is not merely one of Abuja’s busiest commercial centres. With more than 3,800 shops, it is one of the capital’s major economic meeting points, drawing traders and customers from different parts of the country.
It is also a place where political slogans are quickly tested against economic reality.
On this day, Wuse Market was noticeably quiet, with traders sitting outside their shops waiting for customers as weak purchasing power affected businesses. For the traders, business had become an exercise in patience, resilience and hope.
That economic reality is crucial to understanding what 2027 may eventually be about.
The political class may be debating Peter Obi, Seyi Makinde, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and President Tinubu, but the market trader is thinking about sales.
The transport operator is thinking about fuel and maintenance. The family man is thinking about food. The young graduate is thinking about employment. The shop owner is thinking about whether customers still have enough money to buy.
One of the clearest illustrations of this pressure came from Abuja’s Garki Market, where Saturday Independent spoke with Garba Abdullahi, a butcher.
“Before, I used to sell a whole cow a day. Now I can’t even sell a lap,” he said.
Garba said: “Whenever I get home in the evening and check the money in my hand, I often ask myself what is happening, but honestly I still don’t have an answer to my question.”
Although Garba was speaking from Garki rather than Wuse, his experience provides a window into the economic concerns that will follow politicians from campaign offices into markets and polling units.
And those concerns are already being reflected in political analysis.
Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM Intelligence, has warned that widespread dissatisfaction with the Tinubu administration may not be enough to defeat the president if opposition votes remain divided.
“Voters are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the administration’s handling of inflation, insecurity and unemployment, but because the anti-incumbent vote is split, the president has the edge,” Effiong said.
That is perhaps the central problem confronting Obi, Makinde and the wider opposition.
There is anger. There is hardship. There is dissatisfaction, but there is still no agreement over who should carry the opposition’s presidential banner.
The political analyst’s warning is reinforced by the country’s recent electoral history.
In 2023, Obi, Atiku and Kwankwaso attracted substantial support in different parts of the country, but their candidatures remained separate. Tinubu eventually emerged victorious.
The opposition now wants to prevent a repeat, but it faces a more complicated situation than it did in 2015.
Atiku is leading the ADC presidential campaign. Obi is seeking the presidency under the Nigeria Democratic Congress, while Makinde is contesting under the APM.
Each man has his own political identity. Each has supporters. Each has a narrative about why he should be the person to lead Nigeria, and that is precisely why Obi’s appearance at Makinde’s campaign office is politically interesting.
It suggests that the opposition’s first challenge may be to create enough trust among its leading figures to make eventual negotiation possible, but trust is not enough.
They will need a mechanism for choosing a candidate. They will need agreement on zoning or regional balance. They will need a common manifesto. They will need to decide how to share political positions and, perhaps most importantly, they will need to convince their supporters that supporting another opposition candidate is not a betrayal of their political cause.
That last issue could prove particularly difficult.
Obi’s political movement has developed a strong emotional identity around his 2023 presidential campaign. Many of his supporters have insisted that he should remain the presidential candidate rather than accept a subordinate role.
Makinde, meanwhile, is attempting to take his Oyo State record to a national audience.
His campaign message is built around a “Reset Nigeria” agenda focusing on competence, accountability, security, economic growth and improved welfare.
At the Wuse campaign-office opening, Makinde argued that the conversation about resetting Nigeria should not be limited to politicians but should reach homes, markets, farms, factories, schools and communities.
That message has significance because the coming election will ultimately be decided outside party offices.
It will be decided by voters, and voter sentiment is increasingly dominated by economic survival.
Cheta Nwanze of SBM Intelligence said the APC’s long period in power and Tinubu’s reforms had created significant political pressure for the ruling party.
Nwanze, however, also identified the opposition’s problem: disunity could allow Tinubu to benefit despite widespread dissatisfaction.
“The odds are against Tinubu, and the only way back is low voter turnout on polling day,” Nwanze said, while noting that the opposition remained disunited.
That is an uncomfortable reality for the opposition.
The APC does not need every Nigerian to be satisfied. It needs its own supporters to turn out and its opponents to remain divided. The ruling party also has a significant organisational advantage.
Recent reporting indicates that 31 of Nigeria’s 36 state governors are now members of the APC, giving Tinubu’s party substantial grassroots political infrastructure.
That infrastructure could become decisive. Presidential elections are not won on television alone. They are won at polling units.
They require agents, mobilisation structures, transportation, voter education, campaign coordinators and the ability to defend votes through the counting process.
The opposition may have public dissatisfaction on its side, but the APC has an organisational machine.
This is why the relationship between Obi and Makinde deserves close attention. If their interaction remains merely symbolic, its political significance will eventually fade.
But if it becomes part of a broader process through which opposition leaders learn to negotiate, compromise and build a common platform, the Wuse encounter could retrospectively be viewed as one of the early moments in the formation of a more serious opposition coalition.
There is another important dimension: voter mobilisation. Earlier this year, voter sensitisation activities were held in Wuse Market and other Abuja markets to encourage residents to register, collect their Permanent Voter Cards and participate in the 2027 elections. Organisers specifically identified markets as important spaces for reaching large numbers of residents.
That is significant because the market is where political theory encounters the voter, and the voter is becoming more difficult to impress with slogans.
The trader wants to know whether customers will return. The farmer wants security. The young person wants employment. The parent wants affordable food and education. The entrepreneur wants access to credit and a stable business environment. The ordinary Nigerian wants the government to work.
That is why the opposition cannot build its 2027 campaign exclusively around removing Tinubu. It must provide an alternative. What will it do differently? How will it address inflation? How will it improve security? How will it create jobs? How will it strengthen the naira? How will it improve electricity? How will it make the government more accountable?
These questions will eventually become more important than the photographs taken at political meetings.
For Tinubu, the challenge is equally straightforward. His government will have to demonstrate that the painful economic reforms introduced since 2023 are beginning to produce benefits that ordinary Nigerians can feel.
The APC will argue that subsidy removal and foreign-exchange reforms were necessary to correct long-standing economic distortions.
The opposition will argue that Nigerians have paid too high a price for reforms whose benefits remain uncertain for many households.
The election will therefore become a contest between continuity and change. But there is a third factor: credibility.
Nigerians must believe that whoever replaces Tinubu can actually deliver. This is where Obi and Makinde will face their own test.
Obi has national recognition and a powerful youth following. Makinde has executive experience and a record in Oyo State that he intends to use as evidence of his capacity.
However, neither can win the presidency merely by being popular in his strongest political territory. Nigeria’s presidency requires national spread.
The successful candidate must win the highest number of votes and meet the constitutional requirement for geographical spread.
That means the opposition needs a candidate capable of reaching beyond traditional regional and party loyalties. It also needs a structure capable of converting that support into votes.
The 2015 experience provides the historical lesson. The opposition won because its leading forces eventually understood that individual ambitions had to be subordinated to a larger objective.
The question is whether today’s opposition leaders can demonstrate the same political maturity. The Wuse meeting has opened the door, but it has not answered the question.
Obi’s presence at Makinde’s campaign office does not mean the two men have agreed on a presidential ticket. It does not mean one has withdrawn. It does not mean a formal coalition has been concluded.
But it does show that political communication remains possible between two men who could otherwise become direct competitors. That alone is significant.
The coming months will reveal whether that political courtesy can become political strategy.
For now, Wuse has provided an interesting snapshot of Nigeria’s 2027 politics: two opposition presidential contenders standing together while an increasingly anxious electorate watches from outside the political room.
The politicians are negotiating power. The traders are negotiating survival. And eventually, both conversations will meet at the polling booth. That is where the significance of Obi and Makinde’s handshake will finally be tested.
If the opposition can transform such encounters into genuine cooperation, Tinubu’s re-election campaign could face a formidable challenge.
If it cannot, the president may benefit from the same problem that has repeatedly weakened Nigeria’s opposition – too many candidates, too many ambitions and too little unity.
For the trader in Wuse, however, the final question may be much simpler: not who shook whose hand, not who attended whose campaign office, not who has the biggest political structure, but who can make life better.
That is the question the 2027 election will eventually force every politician to answer.