2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation
2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes as the Labour Party and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) moved to rebuild the party’s ground game around one idea: turn the nationwide network of workers into a disciplined polling-unit structure that can mobilise votes and defend them with paperwork.
The new direction was unveiled on Wednesday at a one-day Strategic Multi-Level Stakeholders Summit of the Labour Party in Abuja, bringing together party leaders and organised labour representatives. From the meeting came a clear resolution: deepen membership registration and validation using union structures as the backbone of Labour Party operations at the grassroots. 
At the centre of the strategy is a practical lesson from 2023, when Labour Party leaders said they struggled to robustly defend their claims in court because of gaps at polling unit level and weak retrieval of Form EC8A, the official result sheet used to substantiate vote figures. 
That is the context behind the line now driving the new plan: 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes.
“Register from the polling unit”
Speaking to stakeholders, Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Senator Nenadi Usman, said the party must return to the basics, beginning with properly registering members “right from the grassroots.” She argued that without accurate membership data, effective planning and mobilisation are guesswork.
Usman said the Labour Party failed in 2023 to fully use its key institutional affiliates, including the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), to anchor the party firmly at polling-unit level. That omission, she said, fed into the post-election struggle to retrieve the documentation required to prove vote counts in court. 
In her words, the new approach is to use the NLC, TUC and affiliated unions to register members from the polling unit upward, build a reliable database, and deploy registered members as polling unit agents when elections come. 
This is why 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes is not just a slogan. It is a shift toward paperwork, presence, and polling-unit discipline.
The EC8A problem, and why it’s now the obsession
The Labour Party’s 2023 legal fight, according to leaders at the summit, exposed a brutal truth of Nigerian election disputes: it’s not enough to claim results were manipulated; you must show what happened at the polling unit, and you must have the documents.
Punch reported that party leaders repeatedly argued that inadequate grassroots coordination and the failure to deploy a structured network to retrieve result sheets weakened their case at the tribunal. The summit’s renewed strategy is built around preventing a repeat. 
Usman stressed that systematic collection of Form EC8A at every polling unit is indispensable. If party agents are present, votes are watched, counted, signed and the forms secured, there is less room for “glitch” arguments, and more ability to defend results later. 
So again: 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes is essentially EC8A plus structures.
https://ogelenews.ng/2027-lp-nlc-plan-grassroots-mobilisation
NLC: “Workers are no longer strangers in their own house”
On the labour side, Stephen Okoro, Acting Chairman of the NLC Political Commission, framed the renewed collaboration as a return to the party’s ideological roots. He described the moment as “redemption” of the founding vision and pledged commitment to the membership registration and validation exercise.
Okoro said labour would mobilise workers “in their millions,” not only as party members but as duty bearers of the party’s ideology, urging state political committees to brace for the work ahead. 
That pledge is one of the load-bearing parts of 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes.
Alex Otti’s camp: unity first, or nothing works
A key political note also came from Abia State. Governor Alex Otti was represented by Deputy Governor Ikechukwu Emetu, who warned that unity and internal cohesion will determine electoral fortunes.
Emetu’s message was blunt: movements don’t thrive on numbers alone; they need cohesion, discipline, and shared conviction. He urged the party to consolidate structures, strengthen grassroots mobilisation, push membership revalidation, and build alliances. 
In other words, 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes will rise or collapse on whether the party can keep its house steady long enough to execute the plan at scale.
The bigger picture: a membership drive already in motion
This push also fits into a wider organisational agenda around membership expansion. Independent Newspaper earlier reported the Nenadi Usman-led Labour Party unveiling an activity schedule for a major membership mobilisation and revalidation drive tagged “Labour Party connect 10 million Nigerians,” with congress timelines leading into early 2026. 
Put together, the story is this: the party is trying to turn popularity into structure, and structure into election-day protection. That’s the practical meaning of 2027: LP, NLC plan grassroots mobilisation, vow to avoid past mistakes.
What to watch next
The real test begins after the summit:
• Can LP and labour build a clean membership database state by state?
• Can they recruit and retain polling-unit agents who understand the job?
• Will union structures actually deliver bodies at polling units on election day?
• Can LP’s internal leadership tensions stay under control long enough for the plan to breathe?
https://punchng.com/2027-lp-nlc-plan-grassroots-mobilisation-vow-to-avoid-past-mistakes
