Nenadi Usman, national chair of the Labour Party (LP), says she was moved to tears when Alex Otti, governor of Abia, insisted she remained chair of the party after completing her tenure as caretaker chairperson.
On April 28, Usman was elected substantive national chairperson of LP at the party’s national convention in Umuahia, the capital of Abia.
Before the election, the former minister of finance had been leading LP in acting capacity since September 2024 when she was appointed chairperson of the party’s national caretaker committee.
Speaking on Friday in Abuja while hosting the leadership of the Nigeria League of Women Voters (Kaduna state chapter), Usman attributed her emergence to Otti’s relentless support.
“When I was going to Umuahia for our last convention, I thought I would hand over to a man. I shed tears when Otti insisted that I should remain,” she said, according to a statement by Ken Asogwa, LP’s national publicity secretary.
“He is indeed a true advocate of women inclusion, especially as reflected in the appointments he has made in Abia State.”
Usman commended the governor, whom she described as a firm believer in the capacity, dependability, and integrity of women.
She added that the Abia governor’s performance remains visible evidence of what the party represents.
Usman thanked the women group for its commitment to the advancement of women’s political rights in Nigeria.
She urged the group not “to relent in the face of intimidation and the difficult operating environment”, adding that much still needs to be done in the struggle for gender inclusion.
“The Labour Party has remained true to its ideals by not only preaching inclusion but also practising it,” Usman said.
She noted that “the party produced the first female national chairman of a major political party in Nigeria and currently has women occupying the positions of national chairman, national organising secretary, and national legal adviser”.
Usman lamented the “shrinking opportunities” for women in governance and politics despite years of advocacy for inclusion.
She recalled that during her time in the seventh national assembly, there were eight female senators, whereas the current 10th senate has only three women — a decline she described as a major setback to the struggle for gender representation.
She said women must take responsibility for changing the narrative, expressing concern over the tendency of female voters to favour male candidates during elections.
“Even when statistics show that women voters outnumber men during elections, women candidates are often sidelined by their fellow women at the polls. This trend must stop if we are to make any appreciable progress in our quest for greater women inclusion,” Usman said.
She assured the delegation that the party would never waver in its commitment to greater women inclusion in politics.
Responding, Rekiya Shonekan, who led the delegation, appealed to Usman to use her platform to lend stronger support to the group’s advocacy for the bill seeking special seats for women in parliament.
Shonekan said the LP chair’s continued support for women empowerment and broader advocacy will make Nigeria’s political space more inclusive for women.
