PETER OBI’S EXIT FROM THE LABOUR PARTY
LESSONS AND THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE.
SPN Reiterates Call on the NLC and TUC to Convene National Conference of Trade Unions, Socialists and Left Activists to Discuss and Agree on How to Build a Genuine Mass Party that Represents the Interests of Workers, Youths, and the Poor.
Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) statement.
After months of speculation and repeated denials, Peter Obi formally exited the Labour Party (LP) for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on 30 December 2025. This development is not surprising but is typical of capitalist politicians who treat political parties merely as electoral platforms. Peter Obi’s political career is characterized by a consistent pattern of using established political parties as vehicles for personal ambition, without any genuine commitment to their growth, development, or ideological direction. He joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2003 as a platform to become Governor of Anambra State. He later defected to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), under which he emerged as the vice-presidential candidate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 general election.
In 2022, he joined the Labour Party after it became obvious that he could not win the PDP presidential ticket. This move was apparently based on the false impression that the Labour Party was organically rooted among Nigerian workers and the poor, whose anger against the failure of the APC-led government could be opportunistically appropriated to advance his own political ambition.
No doubt, Peter Obi in the 2023 elections enjoined mass illusions from sections of Nigerians, especially young people, who were correctly looking for a break from the old corrupt order that Tinubu and Atiku profoundly represented. Though, himself a former state governor, economic adviser in President Jonathan’s government, and on the same presidential ticket with Atiku in 2019, he gave hope to his supporters with his clever messages.
However, rather than being driven by principle or a commitment to the interests of working people, Obi’s political trajectory—including the latest move to the ADC—has always been shaped by the search for a viable political platform through which his personal calculations and aspirations could be realised. His exit from the Labour Party confirms that he has no ideological or programmatic attachment to the Labour Party’s official social-democratic programme, limited as it is, and no real loyalty to any capitalist political party despite ideological agreement with them. However, a return to the Labour Party cannot be ruled out if he fails to secure the ADC presidential ticket and the Nenadi Usman faction of the LP eventually wins the battle for the leadership of the party. We call on the leadership of the NLC and TUC to reject him if he returns to the LP given that he does not subscribe to the party’s official program and also to the limited Workers’ Charter of Demands presented to him ahead of the 2023 elections.
Lessons for the Labour Movement
The fundamental lesson arising from Peter Obi’s exit from the Labour Party is that the working class cannot achieve liberation by placing its hopes in capitalist politicians, no matter how “progressive” they may appear. The class interests of capitalist politicians are fundamentally opposed to those of the working people. Their ultimate interest lies in preserving an iniquitous economic system that generates inequality and poverty amid vast human and material resources.
This stands in direct opposition to the need for the redistribution of wealth and power away from capital—through public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy under democratic working-class control and management, alongside strong labour rights. These are essential requirements for genuine economic and social liberation for workers, youths, and the poor.
Unfortunately, such a socio-economic arrangement directly threatens the foundations of capitalist power. This explains why capitalist politicians, regardless of the radical or populist language they sometimes deploy to mobilise support, ultimately defend and uphold the capitalist system that safeguards their class interests. Even where the intentions of capitalist politicians may appear sincere, the nature of capitalist politics—rooted in a repressive capitalist state built on the exploitation of the working masses—ensures that the unjust system is preserved irrespective of its operators or administrators.
As a result, policies capable of genuinely improving workers’ living standards are often abandoned or subordinated to profit maximisation and so-called economic “stability for the wealthy ruling elite.” Consequently, electoral promises of hope and change for working people usually amount to nothing. Once in power, capitalist politicians frequently move to demobilise independent working-class activity. Strikes and mass protests are criminalised or reframed as threats to stability.
This explains, for instance, why Obi, as Governor of Anambra State, refused to meet the demands of striking medical doctors, thereby allowing the closure of public hospitals for 13 months.
As far as we in the SPN are concerned, Tinubu does not deserve a day more in office. However, he is not the only one that must be rejected. His anti-poor neoliberal policies, such as petrol subsidy removal and the devaluation of the naira, which Obi and Atiku also advocated during the 2023 elections’ and which account for the current devastation of living standards of the vast majority of the people, must be defeated and reversed. This clearly shows that Obi, Atiku, or any pro-capitalist politician is not a genuine alternative for the working people and the poor.
Against this background, it is evident that the true liberation of the working people requires an independent political organisation of workers, youths, and the poor. This historic task cannot be entrusted to any capitalist politician, regardless of how sincere or well-meaning they may appear.
For a National Conference to Discuss a Political Alternative for the Working People
In light of the above, the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) holds that rather than oscillating between rhetorical opposition and reliance on capitalist politicians, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC)—the largest organised working-class platforms in the country—must take concrete steps, alongside radical and socialist organisations, towards building an independent political alternative for the working people.
This can be achieved either by genuinely reclaiming and rebuilding the Labour Party as a democratic, working-class party or by supporting the formation of a new mass party of workers, youths, and the poor. To this end, we reiterate our call on the NLC and TUC to convene a national conference involving trade unionists, socialist activists, youth organisers, and left political parties such as the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) and the African Action Congress (AAC), as well as pro-working-class civil society organisations like the Joint Action Front (JAF).
The purpose of such a conference should be to democratically discuss and agree on concrete steps towards building a genuine mass party that truly represents the interests of workers, youths, and the poor. It should also serve as a basis for launching a mass-based movement to demand the immediate reversal of all anti-people policies of the Tinubu-led federal government, as well as similar anti-working-class policies being implemented by state governments across the country.
Bamigboye Abiodun (Abbey Trotsky)
Acting National Chairperson
Chinedu Bosah
National Secretary
Email: [email protected]