The Labour Party (LP) has said former President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to concede defeat in the 2015 presidential election showed that political power could be surrendered without putting Nigerian lives at risk.
The party’s National Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, made the point on Tuesday in Bauchi State at the 2026 Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Democracy Dialogue, where political leaders discussed the future of African democracy.
Usman said Jonathan’s conduct in 2015 gave politicians preparing for the 2027 elections a standard for placing national interest above personal ambition.
She said Nigeria avoided the predicted breakdown of democracy in 2015 because Jonathan conceded defeat to Muhammadu Buhari before the final votes had been fully counted.
The event was organised by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation under the theme, “Beyond Elections: Can Political Parties and the Judiciary Save African Democracy?”
Jonathan’s decision tested his words
Usman said Jonathan had consistently maintained that neither winning an election nor staying in power was worth the blood of any Nigerian.
She said his decision after the 2015 election gave practical meaning to that position.
“Jonathan, from the inception of his presidency, consistently maintained that neither his election nor remaining in power was worth the blood of any Nigerian,” she said.
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“And on the day this oft-repeated refrain was put to the test, the former President lived up to his preaching.”
Usman also said the 2015 election had been surrounded by predictions of a possible democratic crisis. She credited Jonathan’s concession with helping Nigeria pass through that period without the predicted collapse.
“Such a principled approach to politics had never before been witnessed on the Nigerian political horizon,” she said.
The Labour Party chairman then turned the 2015 experience into a question for politicians seeking power in 2027.
She questioned whether presidential candidates would be ready to make similar sacrifices for national unity, given the inflammatory language coming from some political camps.
Usman also asked politicians preparing for the next election to respect democratic rules and place national interest above their personal ambitions.
She recalled a saying attributed to Warren Buffett that someone sitting in the shade today benefits from a tree planted long ago.
“The democracy Nigerians practise today has survived till this day because Jonathan made sacrifices in the past,” she said.
LP stakes claim to 2027 structure
Usman also used the gathering to present the Labour Party as a major opposition force ahead of the 2027 elections.
The former Minister of Finance described the Labour Party as the most structured opposition political party in the country.
She said its relationship with the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress had helped give the party a nationwide political structure.
Usman said both labour bodies were constitutional members of the Labour Party.
“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.
She also claimed that the Labour Party was the only opposition party with a realistic presence across Nigeria’s 186,000 polling units.
The democracy dialogue brought together several prominent people, including former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice-President Namadi Sambo and Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed.
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