National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Nenadi Usman, has urged Nigerian politicians to make personal sacrifices and embrace peaceful politics to strengthen the country’s democracy.
Usman made the call in Bauchi on Tuesday while speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the 2026 Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Democracy Dialogue.
She said Nigeria’s democracy remained intact today largely because of the sacrifice made by former President Goodluck Jonathan when he conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election.
According to her, Jonathan’s decision to concede before the final votes were fully tallied was a demonstration of political maturity and a commitment to national stability.
She noted that Jonathan had consistently maintained throughout his presidency that neither his election nor his continued stay in office was worth the blood of any Nigerian, adding that he demonstrated the sincerity of that position when he accepted the outcome of the 2015 election.
Usman urged politicians seeking elective offices in 2027 to play by the rules and place the survival of the country’s democracy above personal political ambitions.
She urged present-day politicians to remember the saying attributed to Warren Buffett that someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
The LP chairman said Nigerians currently enjoy democratic freedoms because previous political leaders made sacrifices to preserve the system.
She, however, questioned whether politicians contesting the 2027 presidential election would be willing to make similar sacrifices, particularly against the backdrop of what she described as inflammatory rhetoric emanating from political camps.
“Democracy Nigerians practise today has survived till this day because Jonathan made sacrifices in the past,” she said, urging politicians to emulate his virtues.
On the Labour Party’s preparedness for the 2027 general elections, Usman described the party as the most structured political platform ahead of the polls.
She said the LP’s relationship with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), which she described as constitutional members of the party, gave it a significant nationwide advantage.
“With the combined strength of the NLC and the TUC, both of which are constitutional members of the party, no Nigerian political party is better positioned to show the APC government the exit door than the Labour Party,” she said.
Usman also urged political parties interested in forming a coalition ahead of the 2027 elections to collapse their structures into the Labour Party.
She claimed that the LP remained the only opposition party with a realistic presence across Nigeria’s 186,000 polling units.
The 2026 Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Democracy Dialogue, themed “Beyond Elections: Can Political Parties and the Judiciary Save African Democracy?”, attracted political leaders and other dignitaries from Nigeria and beyond.
Those at the event included former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former President Goodluck Jonathan; former Vice President Namadi Sambo; Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed; former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim; former Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang; APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Dr. Ben Nwoye; and the Emir of Bauchi, HRM Dr. Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu, CFR.
