From Idu Jude, Abuja
The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Senator Nenadi Usman, has urged Nigerian politicians to emulate the non-violent approach to politics that has come to be associated with the guiding principles of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking to journalists in Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital, on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the 2026 annual lecture of Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Democracy Dialogue,
the Labour Party Chairperson argued that Nigeria’s democracy survived the doomsday predictions of bookmakers in 2015 because former President Jonathan conceded defeat even before the final votes were tallied.
According to Senator Usman, such a principled approach to politics had never before been witnessed on the Nigerian political horizon. She maintained that the former President, from the inception of his presidency, consistently maintained that neither his election nor remaining in power was worth the blood of any Nigerian, and that on the day that this oft-repeated refrain was put to the test, the former President lived up to his preaching.
While imploring politicians angling for the same office in 2027 to play according to the rules, Senator Usman enjoined today’s politicians to remember the eternal wise saying of Warren Buffett that someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
She said the democracy Nigerians practise today has survived till this day because Jonathan made sacrifices in the past. She wondered, given the enormity of inflammatory rhetoric coming from the camps of political parties, if any of the present-day presidential candidates would be capable of making such sacrifices in the interest of the nation.
On the readiness of the Labour Party going into the next election, the former Minister of Finance argued that the Labour Party is the most structured political party in Nigeria going into the next general elections. She maintained that, 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 enjoined all political parties seeking a coalition to collapse and subsume their structures into the Labour Party, as it remains the only opposition political party with a realistic presence in the 186,000 polling stations across the country.
This year’s Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Democracy Dialogue, themed “Beyond Elections: Can Political Parties and the Judiciary Save African Democracy?”, held in Bauchi State, attracted guests from across the country and beyond, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo; founder of the Foundation, former President Goodluck Jonathan; former Vice President Namadi Sambo; Governor Bala Mohammed; former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim; Mr. Peter Obi; former governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State; Labour Party National Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman; APC Deputy National Chairman, South, Dr. Ben Nwoye; HRM Dr. Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu CFR, Emir of Bauchi, and a host of other dignitaries.
