In this piece, JOHN AMEH writes on developments in the Labour Party following the exit of its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the ADC and the uncertainty over a united party ahead of 2027 polls

After many months of speculation over the 2027 direction of the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, he formally joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on December 31, in Enugu.

The South-East regional political capital was agog as ADC heavyweights gathered to welcome the former governor of Anambra State during the declaration rally.

Obi left in tow with him, LP senators – Victor Umeh (Anambra-Central), Tony Nwoye (Anambra-North), some other lawmakers – as well as his Obedients Movement to the ADC to find a new political home.

From the outside, these were losses or minuses for the LP, considering the clout Obi in particular, brought to the party; strengthening it to become a formidable force before and during the 2023 polls that shook the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to its foundations.

The failure of the LP to consolidate on that success story, post-election, and reposition itself ahead of the 2027 generation elections as a viable opposition platform has left the party in disarray.

Obi’s speech at the declaration rally would no doubt resonate with many Nigerians hoping for other leadership options. The former governor spoke of Nigeria facing profound challenges like sabotage by a political class fostering disunity, looting resources, and enabling state capture under the guise of governance, which has looted the nation into poverty despite its vast potential.

He called for national unity to disrupt the current governance structure, defeat insecurity, corruption, and economic woes through production-focused policies, and ensure free 2027 elections by rejecting ruling party manipulations, positioning ADC as the platform for this transformative coalition.

Obi would ordinarily have used the LP as the platform to project and possibly actualise these ideas in 2027 but for its unhealthy state, hence the decision to port to the ADC.

Yet, the LP’s problems are beyond Peter Obi and the Obedients Movement. They are beyond the senators and lawmakers who have been defecting in droves to other platforms. As a matter of fact, insiders and observers will say and truly so, that the lawmakers only used the LP as a vehicle to win elections in 2023 but have not identified with the party after the victory!

With the way things stand, with or without Obi and the Obedients Movement, the party will make no progress without successfully resolving its leadership crisis such that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can recognise its candidates for all the election phases on the way to 2027. What is the use of a political party that will not field candidates for elections anyway?

The LP has remained unstable after the 2023 polls, worsening since 2024 after the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) parted ways with another Interim National Working Committee (INWC) chaired by a former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, over a dispute regarding the tenure of Abure’s leadership.

Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, and Peter Obi were the main backers of Senator Usman at a point when Obi was still deeply involved with the LP, insisting that Abure must leave to allow for the rebuilding of the party through a new national leadership.

Though the April 4, 2025 judgment of the Supreme Court declared Abure’s chairmanship as ended, the same court also empowered political parties to have the sole responsibility of determining the management of their internal affairs. It is this portion of the judgment that Abure is relying on to remain in power, arguing that it actually affirmed the elongation of the tenure of the current NWC that he chairs.

It is also interesting that governor Otti did not join Obi in his voyage to the ADC, preferring to remain in the LP, while aligning himself with the faction of the party chaired by Senator Usman.

The next elections will be the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections scheduled for February 21, 2026. The LP will not be fielding candidates, owing to non-recognition by INEC. Neither the Usman camp nor the Abure-led NWC has been granted access code to upload the names of candidates to INEC’s portal for the elections. A resort to other judicial interventions has also not helped as INEC insists there are no binding orders on the commission to accept the candidates of the LP.

INEC frequently cites the LP’s factional fight and the pending court cases as the background for not issuing access codes to upload candidates for the upcoming polls, while it also references the earlier Supreme Court judgment. INEC also views the matter as subjudice.

For example, an FCT High Court issued an interim ex parte order on December 16, 2025, directing INEC to upload the candidates, but it lapsed after seven days on December 23 without extension with the implication that no subsisting court order exists, hence INEC awaits final judicial decisions before acting.

Will there be a united LP?

It doesn’t appear any compromises are in sight soon, going by developments in the party. “The train has since left the old station”, is the most easily-quoted position of the Abure camp, clearly passing the message that reuniting with or working the faction led by Senator Usman and Otti is not feasible for now. Who will be in charge, assuming the two come together?

Labour Party is polarised right from the center to the wards across the Federation. The Abure-led NWC has successfully conducted ward, local government and state congresses, awaiting the holding of a national convention “if necessary”, according to the camp. On the other side, the Usman-led INWC dissolved all executives of the party in the 36 states and the FCT and set up interim caretaker committees to manage the affairs of the party till it holds proper congresses leading to a national convention this year. The unfolding scenario can at best leave INEC in a dilemma deciding on which faction is really LP!

Datti Baba-Ahmed as a rallying point?

The exit of Peter Obi has given his 2023 running mate, Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the opportunity of becoming the rallying point for the party as both the lead financier and possible 2027 presidential candidate.

He appeared at a rally organised by the Abure-led NWC in Abuja last week to beat his chest that he is ready to lead Nigeria and that he will unveil his plans once INEC releases the official timetable for the 2027 polls.

Baba-Ahmed, in a remark that suggested he is senior to Obi in the race for the presidency, told party members that he actually aspired for the job years before Obi contested in 2023.

He explained, “I am my own boss. I contested for the presidency in 2019 before Peter Obi. I agreed to partner with Peter Obi in 2023 because I saw an opportunity to unite Nigerians and I accepted it.

“I am a Nigerian and will make my decision known when the whistle is blown. Yes, I’m Nigerian, I am a Hausa man and Muslim. Bola Tinubu is a human being, and there are human beings in the Labour Party.”

It was at the same rally that Abure told party faithful that Obi’s exit would not be missed as there was indeed a Labour Party before he joined the platform in 2022.

“LP is intact, and people thought that when some people leave the party, the party will die. But, no, we are stronger and we will continue to win elections”, Abure told supporters.

Abure acknowledged Obi’s contributions after he joined the party, but insisted that it would be wrong to flow with the narrative that without Obi’s influence, there would have been no LP.

He spoke further, “We had laundered the image of our party with several people of influence coming to us to say they want to join, some actually joined. Only recently, the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, told the world that he joined the party before Peter Obi did, this is true.

Where does this take the LP? Probably nowhere because the Senator Usman-led INWC will also rally support for a separate presidential candidate soon. This means that at the end of the day, the ‘party’ will be asking INEC to recognise two LP presidential candidates for the 2027 contest? That is where the real problem is, not the noises from rallies, meetings and protests which convey the impression that the party is in motion but in reality, not moving at all – a case of motion without movement!

Rising from its most recent NWC meeting held on January 7, the Usman camp, while wishing Peter Obi well in his decision to join the ADC, unequivocally affirmed governor Otti as the ‘national leader’ of the LP.

A communique issued at the end of the meeting partly reads, “The NWC received the INEC press release of 7th January 2026 with relief and a sense of institutional clarity, noting that the release merely reaffirms the Supreme Court judgment of 4th April 2025, which held that the tenure of Mr Julius Abure as National Chairman of the Labour Party had elapsed.

“The National Leadership of the Labour Party therefore urges INEC, in line with its press release and subsisting court judgments, to accord Senator Nenadi Usman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha all rights, recognition, and privileges attached to the office of National Chairman and National Secretary of the Labour Party, in strict compliance with the rule of law and the Supreme Court judgment referenced by INEC.”

Days later, the Abure-led NWC fired back with a response through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, dismissing the “claim” that the apex court ended the tenure of Abure. It warned Usman and Nwokocha to refrain from parading themselves as national chairman and national secretary respectively of the LP.

The foregoing leaves one with a safe summary for now. That the Labour Party stands at a crossroads of self-inflicted paralysis, torn between warring factions led by Abure and Usman, with defections like Obi’s to the ADC accelerating its decline.

Without swift reconciliation and INEC recognition, the LP risks irrelevance, unable to field candidates or challenge the status quo, thereby leaving Nigerians to ponder if this once-promising disruptor can ever regain its footing or if it will fade into electoral obscurity. (Nigerian Tribune)