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"I Will Not Let the Party Down": Nenadi Usman Elected First Female National Chairman of a Major Nigerian Party After Turbulent Two‑Year Battle
History was made in Umuahia on Tuesday, 28 April 2026 — not with a gavel, but with a consensus. At the International Conference Centre in Ogurube Layout, delegates of the Labour Party — the movement that captured the imagination of millions of young Nigerians in 2023 — set aside two years of factional warfare, court battles, and bitter recriminations to unanimously elect Senator Nenadi Esther Usman as the party's substantive National Chairman. In doing so, they shattered a glass ceiling that had withstood every political storm in Nigeria's democratic history: Usman, a former Minister of Finance and Senator, is now the first woman ever to lead a major political party in Nigeria. "I will not let the party down," she declared in her acceptance speech. "We will work to strengthen our structures and ensure that the Labour Party remains a viable platform for Nigerians."
The moment was the culmination of a journey that began on 4 September 2024, when, at a fractious NEC meeting in this same city, Usman was appointed to lead the party's National Caretaker Committee following the expiration of the tenure of the Julius Abure-led executive — a vacuum that had plunged the LP into a protracted and destabilising leadership dispute. She steered the party through its most turbulent period: ward, local government, state, and zonal congresses were conducted; factions multiplied; lawsuits flew. In January 2026, a Federal High Court affirmed her leadership. On 21 April — just seven days before the convention — the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld that decision. And on Tuesday, with INEC officials, NLC and TUC representatives looking on, the delegates ratified her by acclamation, transforming a court‑affirmed caretaker into a consensus‑endorsed chairperson and closing a chapter of chaos with an act of collective will. Behind her rose a 32‑member National Working Committee that reflected the national spread the party had long promised: Rt. Hon. Iheanacho Obioma as National Secretary, Mrs. Nike Oriola as Deputy National Chairman, Ken Eluma Asogwa as National Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Oluchi Oparah as National Organising Secretary, Comrade Anslem Eragbe as National Financial Secretary, and — in a final act of reconciliation — Hilda Dokubo, whose suspension was lifted earlier in the day by a unanimous voice vote, as the new National Women Leader.
The Otti Mandate: "Reconciliation, Integration, and a Game of Numbers"
If Usman's election was the headline, Governor Alex Otti's charge was the subtext that gave it political weight. The Abia State Governor — the party's national leader and its most senior elected official — did not deliver a victory lap. He delivered a warning wrapped in a strategy. "The first job that we need to do is what we call reconciliation, and the integration of as many people as possible," Otti told the freshly inaugurated NWC. "Nobody should be left behind. I urge you to go on a reconciliation ride and bring everybody together. This is a game of numbers — we want as many people as possible."
It was a telling reference. In the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi — running on the Labour Party platform — won over 6.1 million votes in a contest defined by youth turnout, digital mobilisation, and the fervour of the "Obidient" movement. But the party won only one governorship (Abia), eight Senate seats, and 35 House of Representatives seats — a return that, while historic for a platform dismissed as a "social media party," fell far short of the critical mass needed to unseat a ruling APC machine with deep pockets and deeper institutional roots. Otti understands the arithmetic of power: unity is not a moral virtue; it is the precondition for victory in 2027. "Very soon, primaries will be conducted across the constituencies. It is also part of your job to ensure that we have smooth primaries — from the state constituencies, all the way through the National Assembly, and of course, governorship and presidential. I expect that our primaries will be free and fair," he said, before adding the sober reality check: "After that, campaigns will set in, and after campaigns, elections. So you can see that you have a lot of work to do."
Otti's confidence in Usman was personal and unequivocal. "We have worked close to two years, and she's been so transparent and accountable. So, I want to assure you that we didn't make a mistake. I'm very proud of her. And I know that you are proud of her too," he told the delegates, describing her as "a square peg in a square hole" — a phrase that, in Nigerian political parlance, is reserved for the rarest of appointments.
"A Game of Numbers": The Reconciliation Imperative
The convention's most telling moment may have been the one that received the fewest headlines: the lifting of suspensions on 26 members and the immediate election of one of them — Nollywood actress and former Rivers State LP Chairman Hilda Dokubo — as National Women Leader. It was political choreography with a purpose: to signal that the party's internal wars were over, that the victors were magnanimous, and that the door was open to anyone willing to help build the structure. Among those reinstated alongside Dokubo were Emmanuel Agida, Abayomi Arabambi, Ogar Osim, Muhammed Aliyu, Casmir Uchenna, Airen Igbinedion, and Auwal Ahmed. The suspensions, imposed as recently as 18 April 2026 — just ten days before the convention — were reversed by a unanimous voice vote on the convention floor. Newly elected Chairman Usman explained the decision in plain terms: "The party followed the path of reconciliation and forgiveness."
But the absences were as significant as the presences. Former presidential candidate Peter Obi, whose "Obidient" movement remains the party's electoral engine, was not listed among attendees — a detail that opposition strategists are already interpreting as a sign that Obi's 2027 ambitions may be pursued on a different platform. When the party's presidential primary convenes on 23 May 2026, the question of who carries its flag — and whether that flag-bearer commands the loyalty of the Obidient base — will be decided at the ballot. The primary date itself is drawn directly from the electoral timetable approved by the party's National Executive Council (NEC) in March 2026. Usman's first major test will be to deliver that primary — and to ensure that the candidate who emerges does not fragment the fragile unity Tuesday's convention achieved.
From Finance Ministry to Political History
At 59, Nenadi Usman is no stranger to breaking barriers. Born on 12 November 1966 in Jere, Kaduna State, she holds a Bachelor's degree in Geography from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a postgraduate diploma from the University of Jos. Her public service career spans decades: Principal Personnel Officer at the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) from 1994 to 1998; Minister of State for Finance, and later full Minister of Finance, under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration; Senator for Kaduna South Senatorial District from 2011 to 2015, running on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Her transition from PDP to Labour Party — and her subsequent rise from caretaker chairperson to substantive national chairman — is itself a testament to the political realignment reshaping Nigeria's electoral map. She assumes leadership of a party that, despite winning over six million votes in 2023, has fewer than ten seats in the National Assembly. Her task is to convert enthusiasm into institution-building, and momentum into machinery.
The outgoing Caretaker Committee Secretary, Senator Darlington Nwokocha, captured the moment's gravity when he described the convention as "historic" and declared that it marked "the end of the most turbulent period of the party." The convention's theme — "Labour Party, Rising for Victory" — was chosen before the legal victories, before the reconciliation, before the glass ceiling was broken. On Tuesday, that theme ceased to be an aspiration. It became a declaration.
A Glass Ceiling Shattered, A Party Reborn
Nenadi Usman's election as the first female National Chairman of a major Nigerian party is about far more than gender. It is about a political movement that refused to die — a party that was written off as a "social media phenomenon," fractured by internal wars, and dismissed as incapable of governing itself, let alone the country. Its leaders have spent two years proving the doubters wrong. The question now is whether they can prove the voters right. With a presidential primary set for 23 May and general elections just nine months away, the clock is ticking. But on Tuesday in Umuahia, surrounded by delegates who cast their voices in unison, Nenadi Usman and the Labour Party allowed themselves a moment of belief — because before a party can win a nation, it must first learn to win itself.
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