Ahead of the 2027 general election, there are indications that Labour Party’s internal crises have continued to deepen, casting dark clouds over the 2027 presidential ambition of Peter Obi and the party’s efforts to consolidate its activities at the grassroots.
Labour Party has, since 2022, served as home to the over six million Obidients, a group of young and vibrant ardent followers of Peter Obi, according to the 2023 election results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The electoral umpire stated after the election Labour Party had secured a total of 6,101,533 votes, winning 11 states, including Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria’s two most important states, as well as 25.40 percent of the total votes cast.
The party won Abia State governorship election, 34 House of Representatives seats and seven senatorial seats out of the 109.
On the overall, the Labour Party came third, behind the winner, President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 8,794, 726 or 36.61 percent and Atiku Abubakar’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which secured 6,984, 520 votes or 29.07 percent.
Labour Party, which was established in 2002, had struggled without much success to break the stronghold of Nigeria’s politics controlled by the PDP and other parties until 2023.
Obiora Ifoh, the party’s national publicity secretary, in a telephone chat with the BusinessDay, admitted that the LP did not have what it took to compete with the other big parties until the emergence of Peter Obi.
“Yes, there is no doubt that this party did not have what it takes to compete with the other parties before His Excellency, Peter Obi, came on board, but what is currently happening to the party is certainly not what we had anticipated.
” If, by now, everyone had cooperated with the Julius Abure-led leadership, it would certainly have been the most respected and feared opposition party.”
This is coming amidst speculations that Peter Obi may abandon the Labour Party, the platform under which he contested the 2023 presidential election as its candidate.
Katcy Ononuju, director-general of The Heritage Center, Abuja, and a strong member of the Obidient Movement, told BusinessDay that Peter Obi will announce his platform before the end of the year.
He expressed regrets that both David Mark and Atiku Abubakar are using their alliance, which dates back to 1993 presidential election, to deny Peter Obi the chance of fulfilling his 2027 presidential ambition on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). He claimed that the ADC is pushing for Atiku Abubakar’s presidential election in 2027.
Ononuju assured that the Obidient Movement, which he described as an ‘organic movement,’ will remain in the party.
“Even if Peter Obi goes to any other party, we already have planted our men in the party and they will vote for Peter Obi in 2027.
“Members of the Obidient Movement are everywhere. It is an organic movement and they grow freely from the inside. Peter Obi is loved by everybody.
“So, irrespective of where he contests the presidential election from, Nigerians will vote for him, come 2027.”
Internal crisis
Labour Oarty could not field any candidate in the August 16 by-elections held across 13 states over the current internal crises.
BusinessDay gathered that despite several efforts by Peter Obi to resolve the crises in the Labour Party, there is yet no sight of a proper national convention in the party.
The current crises in the LP began at the alleged expiration of Abure’s tenure in March, 2024.
Abure, in an effort to consolidate his hold on the party, summoned a national convention, which returned him as chairman.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rejected the convention on the grounds that the party did not comply with INEC regulations for such convention.
The INEC refused to send an observer team as required by the law, saying that it did not recognise the process leading to the March 2024 National Convention, which re-elected Abure as chairman.
The commission, also in exercise of its powers, wrote and informed the party that the present National Working Committee (NWC) of the party no longer had a valid tenure after June, 2024.
The Abure-led leadership of the party sued INEC challenging, amongst other things, its exclusion from the commission’s refresher training for uploading party agents ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
But an INEC a counter-affidavit, filed in response to the suit, argued that the Labour Party’s leadership, including Julius Abure, was now invalid, stressing that it did not recognise the party’s March 2024 national convention, which re-elected Abure as chairman.
Following this development, Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti convened a stakeholders’ meeting in Umuahia, where they appointed a 29-member caretaker committee, headed by Nenadi Usman to, amongst other things, organise an all-encompassing national convention that would produce a new leadership for the party.
They subsequently wrote a letter to the INEC on September 6, 2024, informing the commission of the non-existent leadership crisis in the party.
Every effort to settle the dispute arising the failed March 2024 convention has so far failed.
On the backdrop of the establishment of the 29- member committee, the- Abure led leadership said the party would not give Obi automatic ticket.
But in a twist, Tony Akeni, the interim national publicity secretary in charge of the Nenadi Usman-led NWC, announced his intention to resign from the party over poor funding.
In what he said is a ‘pre-resignation memo’ sent to all the relevant organs of the party, Akeni disclosed that the party has not been able to carry out the assignment of organising congresses from wards to the national level, due to poor funding.
According to him, ” The assignment given to the NWC of our party to conduct nationwide state congresses and all-inclusive national convention commenced after its inauguration at Umuahia on September 4, 2024. Less than two years to the 2027 general elections, instead of the three months (90 days) original time frame given to the working committee, the exercise has now spanned 445 days, several months more than a full year.
“Yet membership registration and revalidation, which are compulsory antes to the congresses and convention, are not close to commencement, much less conclusion in the foreseeable time.”
He disclosed that he was compelled to relocate to Abuja from his Edo State family abode and abode of occupational livelihood on August 7, 2025.
“I have since then been carrying out all assignments of the office from hotel accommodation without a penny from the Labour Party or its stakeholders, except a single N10,000 token for data shared to me by Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku on September 27, 2025.
“The zero budget assertion and insistence of an unnamed iNWC member pertaining to the office of the National Publicity Secretary raises very disturbing questions and implications against my continued and effective functioning of the duties, responsibilities and expectations of the office,” he said.
Akeni lamented that the fund-yourself party policy asserted by the unnamed official gives rise to several aching questions.
“Assuming that Nigeria’s capital city were Maiduguri, from our National Chairman to the least member of the NWC as composed, which official would relocate to Maiduguri, pay his flights, entire accommodation, daily upkeep, meeting attendances and multi-faceted media conferences/publicity bills for even just one month, and accept that he or she is working for a responsible political party and cause?
“In view of the above, one is compelled to agree with majority NWC members that whoever made the assertion that the National Publicity Secretary should single-handedly bear the broad funding burdens of the nationwide media needs of a modern political party which is about to go into nationwide state congresses and national convention does not mean well for the party.”
Peter Obi’s fate
With the tide against Obi in the ADC and crisis within his traditional party, where does he go from here?
A school of thought argues that Obi may not contest in 2027 as he understands that it would be an uphill task for him to defeat President Tinubu. He also knows that the opposition will be divided, as usual, in 2027.
However, another school of thought contends that he may be secretly shopping for a party, which he will not disclose until 2026.
