Former Rivers State Governor and African Democratic Congress (ADC) vice-presidential candidate, Rotimi Amaechi, has admitted that efforts by opposition politicians to form a united coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections remain difficult due to the ambitions of individual political leaders.
Speaking on Monday during a panel discussion at the Nigerian Bar Association’s 2026 Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, where he represented ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Amaechi said: “Coalition as it is today is difficult to achieve”. He identified personal ambitions as a major obstacle, stating: “The difficulty in it is that everybody has ambition; nobody wants to give up”.
The opposition has repeatedly discussed presenting a single presidential candidate in 2027, but disagreements over who should lead the coalition have complicated the process. Amaechi acknowledged that reaching an agreement would be difficult because political actors are unwilling to abandon their individual ambitions. He argued that any coalition should be built around performance and track records, and urged Nigerians to assess politicians based on their records rather than ethnicity.