COURT SACKS ABURE AS THE LABOUR PARTY NATIONAL CHAIRMAN, BUT THE CRISIS IS NOT OVER
NLC and TUC Should Convene National Conference of Trade Unions, Socialists and Left
Activists to Discuss How to Rescue Labour Party or Build a New Mass Workers’ Party
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, on January 21, 2026, sacked Julius Abure as the National Chairman of Labour Party on the basis that his tenure had lapsed. The court also recognised the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee as the leadership of the party pending when the party’s national convention is held. It is the Usman led faction that Abia State Governor Alex Otti and Peter Obi, before he left for the ADC, belong to.
By Chinedu Bosah
This judgment is the latest in a series of legal tussle that started in 2023 when the Nenadi Usman Caretaker Committee locked horns with Abure faction for the leadership of the party. Previously, the Supreme Court gave a judgment in April 2025 that removed Abure as the National Chairman but it was not respected by Abure. Rather, he interpreted the judgment to his satisfaction and held on to his position. The matter could go on in circles once again considering Abure’s antecedent to desperately remain as National Chairman by going ahead to challenge the latest judgment at the Court of Appeal and probably also again up to the Supreme Court. Therefore, the crisis of the leadership of the party is not yet over.
It is the failure of the trade union leadership to build and preserve the Labour Party such that workers and the poor own it that created the vacuum that has been all along filed by careerists, political jobbers and capitalist forces. Since the party was established in 2003 by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), there has not been any serious and conscious effort at building the party to represent the interest and aspirations of workers and the poor masses. Clearly some NLC and TUC leaders, like former NLC President Adam Oshiomhole, are happy supporting pro-capitalist parties like the APC and so did not want to see the development of a workers’ party independent from all pro-capitalist formations. Since the 2007 general elections, the party has been a platform for some of those who lose out in the two dominant capitalist parties to contest elections. It fast became a party for the highest bidders only second to PDP and ACN/APC, selling electoral tickets at ridiculously high amounts for both party and civil elections. As a result, workers and ordinary people could not find expression in the party. Workers cannot afford to contest within the party, the right to be voted for was taken away.
Besides, the leaderships of the NLC and TUC have had different opportunities to rescue the party but did not take them. For instance, as the institutional members that could have exploited the relevant provisions to take over the party, particularly after the Supreme Court judgment. Unfortunately, they have left the battle for soul of the party to Abure and Usman factions, lining behind the latter.
However, there is no fundamental difference between the faction led by Nenadi Usman, formerly Obasanjo government’s Finance Minister and defender of anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies, and that of Abure. Whichever way between the two the leadership pendulum swings to, such a Labour Party cannot represent the interest of the working people.
It is also disturbing that the leaderships of the NLC and TUC uncritically supported Peter Obi at the last presidential election despite advocating anti-poor neo-liberal policies such as petrol subsidy removal and devaluation of the naira and not committed to implementing the Workers’ Charter of Demands presented to him. Though, he has left the Labour Party for the ADC, he may return to the party if he does not win the presidential ticket of the ADC. We are of a strong opinion that if the leaderships of the NLC and TUC are truly interested in building Labour Party as a genuine party of the working people, they should reject his return to the party nor support his presidential bid. However, the rejection of Obi should not mean a support for President Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar or any other pro-capitalist politician but as a basis of putting forward a genuine pro-working people alternative in the 2027 elections.
It is high time the NLC and TUC began the process of taking over the party concretely. Therefore, NLC and TUC leaderships should commence discussion and mobilisation in the labour movement to include the trade unions and pro-labour organisations on the agenda of rescuing the Labour Party and repositioning it as a genuine working people’s party or instead forming and building a new mass working class political party. To this end, we reiterate our call on the NLC and TUC to convene a national conference involving trade unionists, left and 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). Such a conference should also agree on the building of a mass movement to consistently resist anti-poor policies and attacks on democratic rights before and after 2027 elections
The continued absence of a mass working people political party that represents the aspiration and interest of the working people and poor gives the corrupt capitalist class the freedom to assault the interest of the vast majority. Hence, there is the dire need for the establishment of a mass working people political party on a socialist programme as a vehicle to challenge and resist capitalist policies and mobilise the working masses in united action to defeat the capitalist ruling elite and bring about a society that plans the economy to meet the needs of all. This is what the DSM campaigns for.