For the third time in his political career and bid to be Nigeria’s president, the presidential candidate of the Labour party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has jumped ship to align with the new political coalition contraption that has adopted the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that Peter Obi, whose political career spans three political parties, was elected governor of Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) but later defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was running mate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, but they lost to General Muhammadu Buhari. His political sojourn took him to the Labour Party (LP) where in 2023 he flew the party’s flag where he made an impressive showing.
He has now dumped the Labour Party to pitch tent with the Abubakar-led coalition that aims to unseat President Bola Tinubu and sack the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
But a faction of the Labour party has given him a 48-hour ultimatum to resign his membership.
But in an apparent response to the development, Obi said in a statement on his 𝕏 handle on Thursday morning, that the decision was not taken lightly but with deep reflection on the future of the country.
The statement read: “Yesterday, the coalition members formally adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 Nigeria General Elections with Distinguished Senator David Mark serving as the National Chairman and H.E. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola serving as the National Secretary.
“Our commitment is to sacrifice and work together towards the 2027 General Elections, ensuring that Nigeria gets a competent, capable, and compassionate leadership that will prioritise the nation’s future by putting the welfare of Nigerians first.
“This decision was not made lightly. It comes from deep reflection on where we are as a country and what must be done to move forward.
“No one group can change Nigeria alone. To dismantle the structures that keep our people in poverty and insecurity, we must build bridges, not walls even when those bridges are uneasy.”
In its ultimatum to Obi contained in a statement dated July 3, 2025 and signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, the LP demanded his resignation having formally joined the opposition coalition.
Reiterating its disinterestedness in joining the coalition, the LP described members of the coalition as “power mongers whose only interest was self and not the people”.
The party warned Nigerians that the often mouthed ‘new Nigeria is Possible’ is “a ruse and cannot be achieved with the assemblage of old, recycled, desperate, and frustrated politicians in the coalition”.
The party stated that all those who allegedly mismanaged Nigeria over the years were the ones that gathered themselves in the coalition while noting that desperate politicians can’t birth new Nigeria.
According to Ifoh “We are aware of several nocturnal meetings between Peter Obi and some of our members, lobbying them to join him in his new party. We’re also aware that a number of them has refused to defect with him.
“Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition, and therefore, any of our members who is part of the coalition is given within 48 hours to formally resign his membership of the party.
“Labour Party is not available for people with dual agenda, people with deceptive persona. The party will not avail itself to individuals who have one leg in one party and another leg elsewhere. People that in the morning, they will claim to be in the Labour Party, and in the evening, they are in coalition.
“Nearly 70 per cent of Nigerian population are youths who are tired of the old order, tired of gerontocrats deciding their fate. The new Nigeria that the youths are dreaming of is not what can be realized from what we are seeing in the coalition.
“These people are opportunistic politicians who are only interested in relaunching themselves into a circle of power, people who are desperate to continue holding on to power.”
Insisting that “the new Nigeria of our dream can only be realised through the Labour Party, and the party is willing to lead Nigerians along that trajectory”, Ifoh urged all members of the party to remain loyal and keep the party structure intact ahead of future elections.