The Trial of Labor

DEMOLA ABIMBOYE argues for the resolution of the Labour Party crisis

Millions of supporters of the Labour Party (LP) now wait with bated breath for the commencement of the hearing in the appeal filed by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, on behalf of his client, Julius Abure, National Chairman of LP, against the judgment of the Appeal Court of April 21, 2026 which said Senator Nenadi Usman should occupy the position.

Abure’s decision came about a month after he had rejected the Court of Appeal’s judgment. He had earlier described the judgment as unacceptable and vowed to challenge it at the apex court. “Nigerians will recall that when the Court of Appeal delivered judgment on April 21 on the Labour Party crisis, our leadership stated clearly that the party would head to the Supreme Court,” he said recently.

This step has once again brought to the fore the plight of the common man who saw in LP when it was formed as the last hope of the downtrodden. The LP was initially formed in 2002 as the Party for Social Democracy (PSD) by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). It was renamed the Labour Party in 2003. The change was solidified at its inaugural convention in 2004.

Over the years, LP has registered itself as a credible opposition party. Its candidate, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, won the gubernatorial elections in Ondo State in 2007 and served for two consecutive terms. Alex Otti won the 2023 governorship election in Abia State, becoming the only LP governor currently in office.

Also, during the 2023 general elections, LP achieved a more historic national breakthrough when it clinched eight seats in the Senate and 35 in the House of Representatives. The performance made it the third‑largest force in the 10th National Assembly.

It was a feat its leaders foresaw and warned its opponents who were trying to destabilise the party. For instance, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, President, Nigeria Labour Congress on 9 June 2022 said: “We understand that with the current repositioning of the Labour Party as the party for workers, youths, students, women, traders, farmers, professionals, physically disabled persons, the unemployed and the downtrodden, the Labour Party has become the albatross of establishment political parties who have suddenly become jittery and are devising all forms of conspiracy theories and subterfuge to distract the Labour Party from ongoing mass mobilization efforts for sweeping electoral victory in the 2023 general elections.”

Wabba’s prediction has since resurfaced through factionalisation of LP: one led by Mr. Abure and the other by Nenadi Usman. But in 2022, the leadership of the NLC and TUC said it “recognise the leadership of the Labour Party led by Julius Abure, a former trade union leader and workers are part of the leadership.”

But with several court cases challenging the founders of the party and threatening to throw them out, only the Supreme Court Justices can restore the hopes of millions of LP followers through a dispassionate handling of the party’s leadership conflict. Ahead of the hearing in Abure’s appeal Chief Wole Olanipekun, had stated that in the Appeal No. SC/CV/56/2025 – Senator Nenadi Usman & Anor. v. Labour Party & Anor. – which was determined by the Supreme Court on 4 April 2025, that they had held that “issues bordering on leadership of political parties fall squarely within the category of internal party affairs in respect of which the courts cannot exercise jurisdiction.”

Chief Olanipekun wrote further: “While the text and tenor of the judgment of the Supreme Court were very clear and self‑explanatory, it was rather surprising that few months after the judgment of the Supreme Court, the 1st respondent (Nenadi Usman) who was the Appellant at the Supreme Court, again approached the Federal High Court by means of an originating summons where, as a decoy, she purportedly sought the interpretation of the referenced judgment of the Supreme Court, while in the main, seeking the order of the court compelling the 2nd respondent (INEC) to recognise her as the leader of Labour Party.”

Every right‑thinking follower of LP believes that there is still hope for the common man in Nigeria through the party once it overcomes the ongoing internal power tussle through appropriate judgment.

Also, one believes that forum shopping is an abuse of judicial processes and severe deterrent is needed to stop it. It is trite to argue that the LP crisis in the past couple of years witnessed multiple conflicting rulings and or judgments, thus undermining public trust in the judiciary.

Nigerians are therefore eager to hear from the Supreme Court Justices a definitive pronouncement that can give millions of ordinary voters a stable political platform ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Abimboye, a journalist, writes from Lagos