Sowore Says AAC Will Not Join Utomi-Led Talks for Single 2027 Opposition Candidate
Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has said neither he nor his party is participating in talks being led by Professor Pat Utomi to produce a single opposition presidential candidate ahead of the 2027 election.
Sowore made the position known in a public statement on Thursday, September 17, 2026, after reports emerged that a Political Commission led by Utomi would hold consultations with selected opposition presidential candidates and their party leaders.
The Movement for Credible Elections, MCE, said the consultations were part of efforts to facilitate an opposition coalition around a single presidential candidate for the 2027 election. Sowore was among the candidates listed for engagement.
“For the avoidance of doubt, neither I nor the African Action Congress (@AACParty) is part of these talks, and we will not be joining any such coalition,” Sowore said.
He said the AAC represented what he described as a fundamentally different political and ideological direction, arguing that its programme was based on ideological clarity rather than what he called political convenience and elite horse-trading.
Sowore also said the AAC could not enter a coalition with what he described as the political establishment it had consistently opposed.
He alleged that politicians presenting themselves as alternatives had, at different times, operated within the APC, PDP, Labour Party and other political formations that, in his view, had failed Nigerians.
Sowore further said his opposition extended beyond President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, to what he described as the broader political system and governing practices responsible for Nigeria’s challenges.
These characterisations of the political establishment and its record were made by Sowore as part of his explanation for rejecting the proposed coalition.
He said the AAC would instead pursue what he described as a “revolutionary break” from the existing political order, with a programme centred on social and economic justice, equal rights, accountable government and redistribution of political and economic power.
“We will not abandon that program for an arrangement whose principal objective is simply to replace one set of establishment politicians with another,” he said.
The MCE Political Commission, chaired by Utomi, is expected to hold closed-door meetings with shortlisted opposition presidential candidates and their party leaders before a tactical session scheduled to take place in Ibadan.
The candidates listed for consultation include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party, Seyi Makinde of the Allied Peoples’ Movement, Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party, Sandy Onor of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Agada of the Young Progressive Party and Sowore of the AAC.
The commission says its consultations are intended to address disagreements that have affected previous attempts to form a united opposition platform.
Sowore, however, maintained that the AAC would not participate in the proposed coalition.
“The AAC is different. We know what we stand for, and we know the Nigeria we are fighting to build,” he said.
