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African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore said neither he nor the party is involved in talks led by Professor Pat Utomi to produce a single opposition candidate for the 2027 election.
Sowore made this known in a statement on Thursday, following a report that a political commission chaired by Utomi would hold closed-door 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 a single opposition presidential candidate ahead of the 2027 election. The commission has listed Sowore among the candidates it expects to engage.
However, Sowore said he and the AAC would not participate in the process.
“I have read a report in The Punch stating that a Political Commission led by Prof. Pat Utomi intends to hold talks with several presidential candidates, including myself, with the objective of producing a single opposition presidential candidate for the 2027 election,” he said.
“For the avoidance of doubt, neither I nor the African Action Congress (AAC) is part of these talks, and we will not be joining any such coalition.”
Sowore said the AAC’s decision was based on what he described as a different political and ideological direction from other opposition parties.
He said the party’s agenda was driven by “ideological clarity” rather than political convenience or negotiations for access to power.
According to Sowore, the AAC would not form a coalition with what he described as the political establishment it had consistently opposed.
He argued that several politicians presenting themselves as alternatives had previously operated within the APC, PDP, Labour Party and other political formations.
Sowore said the AAC’s opposition extended beyond President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress to what he described as the broader political system and governance practices responsible for Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges.
He said the party would instead pursue what he described as a “revolutionary break” from the existing political order, founded on social and economic justice, equal rights, accountable government and the 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,” Sowore said.
The MCE Political Commission was constituted to consult opposition presidential candidates and party leaders on the possibility of presenting a single candidate in the 2027 election.
According to the MCE, the shortlisted candidates include 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 said the consultations would be held behind closed doors ahead of a tactical session scheduled for Ibadan.
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.
“We are not part of these coalition talks, and we will not be joining them.”
PUBLIC NOTICE: AAC PARTY IS NOT PART OF ANY SINGLE-CANDIDATE COALITION TALKS LED BY PROF. @UtomiPat
I have read a report in The Punch Punch Newspapers stating that a Political Commission led by Prof. Pat Utomi intends to hold talks with several presidential candidates,… pic.twitter.com/m6jFEKhQVr
— Omoyele Sowore (@sowore) September 17, 2026
