Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 general election, has revealed that he turned down an invitation to attend the National Opposition Summit held in Ibadan. He described the event as a calculated effort by longstanding political figures to reinvent their public image.
Over the weekend, opposition leaders converged in Ibadan and reached a consensus to collaborate on fielding a single presidential candidate for the 2027 general election. The coalition reportedly comprises the African Democratic Congress (ADC), led by former Senate President David Mark; a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chaired by Kabiru Turaki; and the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP).
Reacting via a social media post, Sowore stated that he deliberately avoided the summit. He asserted that politicians who have overseen decades of stagnation and corruption cannot suddenly pose as champions of change. “I declined the Ibadan ‘Opposition Summit’. Nigerians deserve a genuine alternative, not recycled failure,” he wrote on Independence Day.
Sowore further argued that there is no reason to believe that the same political actors who contributed to the nation’s challenges can now reposition themselves as defenders of the people. He emphasized that the AAC would not participate in what he termed a political charade aimed at recycling failed politicians under the guise of opposition politics.
In his view, Nigeria’s political problems demand a decisive break from existing structures, not a mere reshuffling of the same individuals. He called for a completely new political approach to address the country's deep-rooted issues.
