Chairman of the Labour Party National Caretaker Committee (LP-NCC), Senator Nenadi Usman, has said she wants to leave a legacy of a united Labour Party.
Usman acknowledged it is a tall, demanding order but achievable if all stakeholders submit to the spirit of forgiveness, reinforce the values of the party’s founding fathers and bond diligently as one family on a voyage together into the future.
“The legacy I desire to be remembered for is that I met a Labour Party in relative conflict and disunity but left it a united, formidable and indomitable elections winning party nationwide,” the acting chairman of the committee said in a statement.
She continued, “This is a tall, demanding order. But it is achievable if we submit to the spirit of forgiveness of the wrongs of the past by all sides, reinforce the values of our party’s founding fathers and bond diligently as one family on a voyage together into the future.”
Usman said with the September 4 party gathering in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, no team, group or divide of the party was vanquished, adding that no group or divide should feel any sense of shame or defeat.
“We won together as one political family by the reality of the law. We escaped together the sword of INEC which would have otherwise taken our beloved party out of its books for having no legally acceptable leadership that meets the requirements of our country’s Electoral Act.
“At the worst, we had a situation which could have left the commission with no alternative but to deregister our party from their portals and excluded us from all elections. That course of action was successfully averted on September 4 at Umuahia.
“This is why I state that there was no vanquished and that everyone who truly bears the name “Labour Party” in their hearts are joint victors of our party’s rebirth at Umuahia.”
She urged all sides of the divide of the various conflicts to sheathe their swords and totally get rid of them.
“Do so by melting them into sickles and ploughshares of peace for harvests of progress and ultimate presidential victory of our party in 2027. If I may remind you, February 2027 is only 30 months away from today.
“In politics, that is somewhat like just 30 days away, considering the choppy, challenging waters our Labour Party ship, as an opposition party, must sail through and the amount of work that needs to be done within this framework of time.
“Those who accept our committee’s olive branch of peace and work with us for our party’s rapid progress shall find my committee’s embrace. Those who adamantly maintain a path that retards progress by promoting division, conflict, collision and chaos shall have the best we can offer to saboteurs, prayers.
“Finally, I urge you to remember this eternal battle-front truth. No matter how long it takes, those who keep faith, reason together, fight together from the trenches as a band of brothers and soldiers of freedom are bound to win together as victors of liberty. To this end, my doors are open to everyone who means well for our party.
“Come forward and let us reason together on my committee’s supreme mandate. This is the mandate to deliver to our party, in about three months, exemplary unifying state congresses nationwide.
“This will climax in a transparent all-inclusive national convention which will produce the next substantive NEC and NWC of our party, and subsequently the next leadership of our great country,” she added.