By Augustine Akhilomen

One of Nigeria’s popular and embraced political parties in the 2023 general elections, the Labour Party (LP) have been enmeshed in a tug of war with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the control of the party’s structure, hence the call by the NLC for the resignation of Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the party.

The LP was formed in 2002 and was previously known as the Party for Social Democracy (PSD) before changing to its current name, the following year, was built on the ideology of social democracy.

Recall that the Party took the 2023 election by storm, first by winning the hearts of many Nigerian youths across the country and secondly, creating major upset in the political system, that saw the party claim victory in the heart of Lagos that was supposedly thought to be under the control of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the Presidential election.

Many observers had believed that the party would be a major threat to the ruling party’s control of power in 2027 if LP maintained its consistency without being distracted by any form of allegations and in-fighting.

However, 12 months after, the party tends to be in disarray over different forms of allegations leveled against its leader, Abure, by NLC that led to demands for his resignation.

Although Abure was re-elected last week Wednesday, as the party Chairman for a second term by a unanimous affirmation of delegates in a congress that many described as a sham, the NLC and many of its prominent members boycotted it and maintained its strong opposition to the leadership of Abure.


In the same vein, the board of trustees (BoT) of the LP in a statement by S.O.Z. Ejiofor, its chairman, said the body has taken over the affairs of the party. Ejiofor said the decision was taken to prevent a leadership vacuum in the party as the tenure of Abure has come to an end.

But in a statement on Thursday, Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary of the LP, said Abure is still the national chairman of the party. Ifoh said the party is not aware of the existence of any BoT.


Observers are of the view that these in-house commotion and crisis may further hamper the party’s chances of making any meaningful impact in this year’s off season elections in Ondo and Edo States. With no headway in terms of who controls this and that from the top to the bottom, there are fears that it would create divisions within the party from the federal, state and local levels, thereby affecting the electoral chances of the party in major elections coming up in Edo and Ondo states.

Recently, some members and leaders of the Obedient’ movement in Edo disassociated themselves from the LP crisis following the crisis rocking the party at the national level.

“These members and leaders believe that the party no longer represents their interests and values.

“They have expressed their disappointment with the party’s handling of the crisis and feel that it has lost its credibility. Therefore, they have decided to dissociate themselves from the party and find an alternative platform to champion their cause.” Gabriel Ajokoye, a political analyst said.

It will be recalled that during the Presidential election, the LP floored both Tinubu and Atiku to claim victory in Edo state. There was therefore the strong belief that Edo may have become an LP territory.

But then, with the recent crisis rocking the party, some observers believed this could force key big wigs of the party not to attend campaigns and rallies, thereby reducing LP’s popularity in the Edo and Ondo States respectively.

Just like the case of PDP in the 2023 Presidential election, where the some political actors within the fold worked against Atiku before and during the election, another scenario appears to be brewing in LP, where this animosities within the ranks may create divisions that will ultimately affect its chances at the polls in the two states.

Meanwhile, a former Labour Party (LP) presidential aspirant and leader of the Rescue Movement for New Nigeria, an NGO, Faduri Oluwadare Joseph, has appealed to factional groups in the party to bury the hatchet and allow peace to reign in the opposition party for the betterment of Nigeria.

“Enough is enough! Let’s bury the hatchet and work together for the purpose of bringing good governance to our nation. This is a nation in my own slogan, “where we have everything but we lack everything”.

“But much more than that I am calling on everyone involved in this party, especially all the Stakeholders, that if they care about this nation and care about Nigerians, not just their personal and selfish interests they should drop their hatchets and sue for peaceful resolution. They should stop all these disturbing issues we have been parading in public for over a year now and let us put this house in order.

“Labour Party is the only alternative party Nigerians are looking up to. Thus, we must move this nation from the old to a complete generational shift through a change of leadership. If the leaders in the Labour Party cannot find a common ground to come together, I beg all of them to leave the party and let us rebuild this party with the help of NLC and Nigerians from the grassroots up and we will stand to challenge any one, any government by 2027”.

More so, a former commissioner in Edo State and now a chieftain of the ruling APC, Prince Kassim Afegbua has said that Peter Obi’s failure to fix the current crisis affecting the Labour Party has contributed to the problems of the party.

His words: “From my crystal ball, I see Obi jumping out of the Labour Party to build fresh alliances to birth his 2027 daydream. If Obi were properly advised, or better still, if he possessed the cutting-edge, he would have built the Labour Party to become an attractive brand, such that it would be the cynosure of all. With regards to the party’s current crisis, he ought to have deployed his “leadership skills” to mend the fractures and resolve the factions in the party. Unfortunately, all that Obi wanted from the party was for it to make him be called Mr. President. Now, whether the Labour Party survives or capsizes, does not matter to him.

“It was just a ride he hitched to take him to Aso Rock; now the vehicle has hit the rock, he declares that he has no stake. He’s already abandoning the vehicle to grab another one for 2027. The Labour Party’s failure to organize itself is Obi’s failure. Peter Obi’s failure to take charge and stir the vehicle to stability at this material time, is the reason why Labour Party members have shown their dereliction to duties.

“I was just wondering: if this was the ruling party, is this how they would have been scrambling for control of the structure of the party while leading us to Eldorado? Political parties are usually very meticulous in the leadership recruitment process, so to understand that Peter Obi does not care in the least, what obtains in his party, is to understand the selfish import of his leadership in the first place.

In the same vein, a political analyst, Sunday Adekoya has opined that the recent Crisis may reduce the chances of the party’s governorship candidates in Edo and Ondo of making any meaningful impact at the polls.

“I really think the Labour Party should put an end to this ongoing Crisis rocking the party at the moment if they still want to remain relevant in Nigeria.

“They need to resolve it quickly in order to win the hearts of the Obidients ahead of the Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States respectively. With the way things are currently, it is certain that it will negatively affect their programmes and action plans for Edo and Ondo if they don’t put their house in order”, Adekoya said.

Beyond this however is the suspicion in some quarters that the crisis might have been masterminded by enemies within and outside to stop the party from posing any threat to the status quo as it did in last year’s elections. Some even said it was the ruling APC fueling the disunity in LP to “give it an easy ride towards the 2027 general elections”.

It’s however surprising that in all this, its presidential candidate at the last elections, Obi, failed to see the damage the current crisis would do to the viability of the party and to his brand in subsequent elections in the country. Not a few people were of the view that Obi and some of the leaders in LP, like Prof Pat Utomi, should have moved on time to stop the crisis from degenerating into a bigger one that might destroy it.

“The crisis only confirmed what some of us have been saying since last year that the LP was just a flash in the pan, that came because of the vacuum created due lack of genuine and creditable leaders in the country. It does not have structure built on well thought out, values, philosophy and principles”, says Thomas Adeyemi, a lawyer.

Adeyemi argued that because of the opportunistic nature of its emergence and lack of concrete ideology, the LP will find it difficult to function on a long run. He added that the crisis will likely affect its electoral chances in Edo and Ondo states. “Don’t forget that it will be difficult for a party in crisis to be united for an election. So, I don’t see them making much impact in the two states”, he said.