1 month ago
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The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Nenadi Usman, has revealed why the party was unable to successfully defend its claim of victory in the 2023 presidential election.
According to her, the party failed to leverage its numerical strength through the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress at the grassroots level.
Usman spoke on Wednesday at a one-day high-level strategic multi-level stakeholders’ summit themed, “Reuniting the Labour Party Family: Consolidating Strength for Sustainable Political Impact,” held at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
The meeting was organised in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
Usman said she had told organised labour leaders that the foundation of a successful political party lies in effective grassroots membership registration.
She noted that no party could claim success without knowing its members, their locations and their numbers, stressing that this gap affected the party in 2023.
Usman stated, “The fact that we did not use these two institutions [the NLC and TUC] to anchor the party very firmly at the grassroots led us to the problems where we are.
“And when other political parties are quarrelling, asking if there’s going to be IREV and electronic transmission or no electronic transmission, that was not our problem. Our problem is to ensure that we register our members right from the grassroots using the major institutions that are the foundation of the Labour Party, the NLC, TUC and all the unions.”
Usman admitted that the party’s weak grassroots structure undermined its performance during litigation.
She further stated, “If we can use them to register our members right from the Polling Unit, then we know we are on the way to success because without having our people registered and we have the data, we know where they are and can use them as Polling Unit agents when elections come.
“In 2023, when the Labour Party went to court to prove their case because they didn’t use the unions to get that form from every Polling Unit, they couldn’t really prove the number of votes that we clearly had.”
She stressed the importance of obtaining Form EC8 from polling units, describing it as critical evidence in election disputes.
Usman added, “That important document called Form EC8, if you talk and say you can do without that form, that is not true. You cannot.
“No structure can ever be built without a foundation. In 2023, we were mocked that we didn’t really have a structure, and we didn’t have a structure because we did not utilize that which we had.”
Usman said the party would not repeat the same mistakes ahead of future elections.
She said, “No Polling Unit in this country where you go to, that you don’t have either a serving worker or a retired worker. We are all over.
“But if we had been called upon in 2023, I want to assure you that even without payment, our members would have come out. They would have stood at the Polling Units, they would have watched our votes counted, they would have signed the Form EC8 and collected it and would have used it to show in court that we really won or did not win the election.”
She disclosed that discussions with the NLC and TUC had already begun on rebuilding the party’s grassroots base.
“So this is another opportunity and we are not going to play with it. And as I said, when we went, sat with TUC and NLC and said we have a problem, how do we do this? They said that’s simple, let’s just do it. Let’s put our members together,” she added.
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