The Labour Party (LP) was formed in 2002 as the Party for Social Democracy (PSD) before adopting its current name two years after. The Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) played a crucial role in founding the LP as a political party for labour unions committed to social democracy. On its official website, the party states its mission as:
“Humanistic, patriotic, pan-African, and socialist, because it is established to promote and defend the rights and welfare of the masses and, indeed, all of humanity. We shall uplift the conditions of life for all, ensure the prosperity and stability of the nation, and guarantee the reign of equity and justice.”
Over the years, the LP has evolved from relative obscurity to becoming a major party. In 2007, Olusegun Mimiko, a former federal Minister of Housing, contested the Ondo State gubernatorial election under the LP and won. This victory was a significant milestone, demonstrating the party’s potential to challenge major political players.
The party gained further national attention when Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and presidential aspirant, left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the LP. Obi’s departure from the PDP was due to his lack of support in the PDP’s upcoming primaries. His entry into the LP significantly boosted its profile, leading to his emergence as the party’s presidential candidate after other aspirants stepped down, making him the sole contestant.
Evolution of LP’s Ideology
The LP’s ideology has also undergone a transformation. Tensions have emerged between its professed social democratic ideals and the governing styles of its political leaders. The party claims its core ideology is social democracy—a socio-political philosophy advocating a regulated capitalist economy with some concern for social policies. Founded by the NLC, the LP originally claimed to have a focus on including trade unions and the working class in shaping policies for equitable development and improved worker welfare.
However, despite its labour-oriented foundation, the LP struggled to gain political traction because the labour movement did not fully mobilise behind it during elections. The election of Olusegun Mimiko as governor of Ondo State marked a turning point. The party increasingly embraced non-labour-aligned and capitalist politicians in an effort to gain more electoral seats.
Although Mimiko introduced some progressive policies—such as free maternal healthcare—he did not pursue a labour-driven agenda aligned with the LP’s idealised social democratic platform. He eventually defected back to the PDP in 2014.
By 2022, when Peter Obi emerged as the LP’s presidential candidate, the party’s ties to trade unions and the broader labour movement had significantly weakened. Prior to Obi’s entry, the LP’s top presidential aspirants—such as Pat Utomi and Faduri Joseph—had little to no connection with the labour movement, just like Obi himself.
Obi’s economic policies, including privatisation, subsidy removal in the oil and gas sector, deregulation, and currency floating, would not have benefited workers. Today, under the Bola Tinubu administration, similar policies have worsened the standard of living for the working class, failing to deliver equitable development. Obi’s candidacy signified LP’s full embrace of neoliberal, ruling class politics.
LP: a platform for class collaboration
The Labour Party reflects a broader pattern of capitalist co-optation of working-class parties that are based on social democratic programmes. The premise of social democracy assumes that the ruling class will voluntarily relinquish or reduce its privileged position in favour of the working class through electoral politics. It suggests that workers, if sufficiently informed and enfranchised, can use electoral politics to challenge the power of the capitalist bosses and gain more concessions.
However, in reality, the capitalist class uses all available mechanisms to perpetuate and reproduce the profit-driven exploitation of workers. Through schools, mass media, pop culture, traditional and religious institutions, the ruling class promotes an ideology that misinforms workers and pits them against their own interests. The courts, police, and military enforce and reinforce the existing economic order.
The capitalist bosses have historically suppressed popular progressive movements. They have manipulated elections, disenfranchised workers, and violently resisted challenges to their rule over us. This has resulted in widespread apathy, as was clear in the February 2023 general elections, which recorded the lowest voter turnout since 1999.
The Limitations of LP and the NLC
The limitations of the LP mirror the weaknesses of the trade union movement. While unions and trade union centres serve as representatives of the working class, they operate within a capitalist framework where power remains in the hands of the ruling capitalist class. They stick with reformist politics, being averse to make radical demands most times, so that they do not rock the boat of collective bargaining.
The LP is not the first labour-centred party in Nigeria. The Nigerian Labour Party (NLP) was among 81 political parties banned under Decree 33 in 1966 by the military government of General Aguiyi-Ironsi. This shows the ruling class’s willingness to resist or dismantle truly democratic movements that pose a threat to the system.
The LP has been co-opted into an anti-working-class agenda. Social democracy fundamentally serves the purpose of capitalism by selling illusions about reformism and legitimising class rule from the outset.
What is the Way Forward?
To genuinely advance the interests of the working class, social democracy must be abandoned by its most politically active strata for revolutionary politics enriched by Marxist perspectives. Our class cannot resist capitalist co-optation and dismantle the exploitative capitalist system with a social democratic programme. It is unlikely that LP can ever surmount its reformist politics and the limitations that go with it. The African Action Congress (AAC) is the only party in Nigeria today which holds revolutionary hope for working-class people with its politics and aim for total liberation. That is why members of SWL support AAC. And we urge rank-and-file workers who want transformative change of society and who are keen to fight for the self-liberation of our class, to also join AAC today.
by Emmanuel EDOMWONYI
