The Labour Party and the Nigeria Labour Congress on Wednesday unveiled a coordinated grassroots strategy aimed at repositioning the party ahead of the 2027 general elections, with plans to deploy workers nationwide as polling unit agents to protect votes.
The plan was announced at a one-day Strategic Multi-Level Stakeholders Summit of the party held in Abuja, where party leaders and organised labour representatives agreed to intensify membership registration and validation by leveraging union structures as the foundation of grassroots mobilisation.
The recalibration, according to party officials, is informed by lessons drawn from the 2023 presidential election and the legal contest that followed. The Labour Party’s candidate in that poll, Peter Obi, challenged the outcome at the tribunal after finishing third behind eventual winner Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and runner-up Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. Rabiu Kwankwaso placed fourth.
Party leaders have since argued that weak grassroots coordination, particularly the failure to secure polling unit result sheets, undermined their ability to substantiate claims during the court proceedings.
Addressing participants at the summit, Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Nenadi Usman, said the party was determined to rebuild its structure from the polling unit level by fully integrating labour institutions into its operations.
She said the absence of a comprehensive membership register and a reliable grassroots network had exposed the party’s vulnerabilities in 2023, stressing that effective planning begins with knowing party members and their locations. According to her, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and affiliated unions remain the strongest pillars on which the party can anchor its nationwide presence.
Usman emphasised the need for a robust membership database and the deployment of registered members as polling unit agents, noting that this would help eliminate disputes surrounding electronic transmission of results. She described Form EC8A, the official polling unit result sheet, as critical to defending votes and sustaining any legal challenge.
She urged state chairmen and union leaders to return home with clear strategies for mass registration, insisting that no political organisation can thrive without a solid foundation at the grassroots.
Also speaking, Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, Stephen Okoro, said the renewed collaboration marked a return to the party’s ideological roots within the labour movement. He pledged the commitment of organised labour to the ongoing membership registration and validation exercise, promising to mobilise workers both as party members and as custodians of its founding ideals.
In a goodwill message, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, represented by his deputy, Ikechukwu Emetu, said unity and internal cohesion would be decisive factors in the party’s electoral prospects. He urged party leaders to focus on rebuilding structures, strengthening grassroots engagement and forging alliances with like-minded progressives ahead of 2027.
With the next general elections still two years away, the summit highlighted a strategic shift by the Labour Party and organised labour to transform Nigeria’s vast workforce into a disciplined electoral machinery capable not only of mobilising votes but also of documenting and defending them at the polling unit level.
