By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Will it die or will it survive this current pangs of crisis? This is the jigsaw political analysts and party faithful are trying to unknot as the Labour Party’s leadership crisis goes on full throttle with its embattled National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure and his faction square up against the 29-member Caretaker Committee. The committee was given birth to on September 4 in Umuahia, the Abia State capital in stakeholders’ meeting convened by Peter Obi, the party’s Presidential candidate in last year’s election and the party’s only governor, Dr Alex Otti of Abia State.
The meeting was convened to save the party from total collapse following INEC’s de-recognization of Abure as the National Chairman and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC’s claim to sole ownership of the party.
The Caretaker Committee
is chaired by former Finance Minister, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman and has Senator Darlington Nwokeocha as Secretary.
In a letter to the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu and signed by Obi and Otti seeking validation of the Caretaker committee, the duo explained that the Umuahia move became necessary following the lingering leadership crisis in the party and consent court judgement by Justice Gabriel Kolawole on March 20, 2018.
The letter read in part: “You will recall that Labour Party had had a leadership crisis in recent times culminating in the de-recognition of the Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) by INEC effective June 2024. This is sequel to the settlement brokered by INEC on June 27, 2022.
“A major part of the settlement states that an all-inclusive national convention, preceded by ward, local government and state congresses shall be convened not later than one year after signing the terms of settlement”
The letter further explained that due to the 2023 general election, the agreement could not be implemented and was shifted to 2024.
“By March 2024, the Abure-led NWC organised a convention at Nnewi without first organising ward, local government and state congresses. This fell short of the standards and the spirit of the terms of settlement as stated above. In the light of all these, a leadership vacuum arose in the party. In like manner, the National Executive Committee membership got depleted leaving less than 10 members standing.
“Given the above scenario, the statutory executives of the party made up of the governor, deputy governor, and legislators, in addition to all surviving members of NEC, the leadership of organised labour, representatives of governorship candidates in the 2023 election and subsequent ones, presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2023 election and other party leaders, met in Umuahia, Abia State, on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 and set up a caretaker committee to organise congresses and the national convention within a period not exceeding 180 days to fill the vacuum created by the expiration of the tenure of the erstwhile leadership of the party at all levels.”
Aside Senator Nenadi Usman and Senator Nwokocha, the letter said other members of the caretaker Committee include representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, Professor Theophilus Ndubuaku, and Comrade Chris Uyot,Senators Victor Umeh, Neda Imasuen, and Ireti Kingibe representing the Senate while the House of Representatives is represented by Hon. Afam Ogene, Hon. Seyi Sowunmi, Hon. Sunday Umeha, Hon. Donatus Matthew, and Hon. Esosa Iyawe.
Others are former governorship candidates of the party were represented by Ken Pela (Delta), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (Lagos), Jonathan Asake (Kaduna), and Edward Pwajok (Plateau).
The members of the state Houses of Assembly in the caretaker committee included Hon. Edosa Richard, Hon. Harrison Oghara, Hon. Augustine Okezie, and Hon. Clinton Amadi
Trade Union Congress (TUC) are represented in the committee by Mohammed Misau, Austin Jonah, and Sansa Omalara.
The other members of the caretaker committee are Edwin Bafte Sajo, Nike Oshola, Aishat Madijiem, Ugoeze Caroline Onwubiko, and Dominic Essien.
Obi and Otti’s intervention to pull Labour party from the brink notwithstanding, Daily Sun has learnt that there are internal and external forces bent on bringing the party to its knees before the 2027 general election so as to prevent a repeat of its audacious outing in the 2023 general elections.
The external forces, multiple sources told Daily Sun are certain elements in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC who have been commissioned to ensure that the opposition party is held down by internecine crisis till 2027.
“That same APC elements engineered and energised the Lamidi Apapa faction to fight Abure- led NWC and by extension Peter Obi. Now that Abure and Lamidi factions have united against Obi, the same APC elements are again beating the drums”, Daily Sun was told. The former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun corroborates in a Channels TV interview: “Some vested interests, like the ruling party, for instance, will be interested in the subversion of the party. The best way to do that is to go through the national chairman. We saw the one with the (Lamidi) Apapa’s own. They are at it again”
The internal forces clandestinely warring against tranquility in the LP, Daily Sun has been informed, are some elected office holders on the party’s platform who are fishing for excuses to return to their former parties. Many of them were, prior to the 2023 elections, either members of the PDP or the ruling APC and only defected to the LP after they failed to secure nomination tickets of their parties.
Said a source: “They are not really committed to the LP; they still see the party as a transit camp, a conveyor belt sort of, and stop-gap arrangement which enabled them to win elective offices….a good number of them are still emotionally attached to their former parties and they are plotting to use the current leadership crisis in the party which they are secretly fuelling as an alibi to return to their former parties to seek re- elections in 2027, convinced that the Peter Obi effect on which crest they effortlessly secured victories in 2027 has already lost the magic wand or would have done so before the next elections”
In fact, some LP elected office holders from the Southwest, it has been learnt, are LP only in name as they started romancing the APC shortly after their electoral victories and inauguration.
“Since getting elected under the LP ticket, many of them have neither convened nor attended LP stakeholders meetings in their constituencies but openly host and court APC supporters and stakeholders”, Daily Sun was told.
A particular LP National Assembly member from one of the Southwest states whose mother, Daily Sun gathered, is a prominent chieftain of the APC, is systematically destroying the LP in his constituency through the imposition of APC members as LP ward Executives. “When he could not secure the APC ticket, his mother immediately arranged the LP ticket for him and got her APC supporters to vote him.
“He is beholden to the APC and is only an LP member in name, his two legs are in APC and it’s obvious he will sooner than imagined formally announce his exit from LP”, an LP member conversant with the brazen anti-party behaviour told Daily Sun.
Labour party which was among the parties that were birthed shortly after the dawn of democracy in 1999 has not had an elegant history having become moribund almost immediately after registration. It was routinely used as transit camp for politicians denied their parties’ nomination tickets; and they wasted no time in dumping it after elections.
Among the politicians that had in the past used LP as a stop-gap party before moving on politically include Senator Andy Uba who once contested Anambra State governorship election on its platform, the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who also once contested Anambra’s governorship election on the party’s platform, former Deputy Governor of Lagos state Femi Pedro who tried but failed to become governor of the state on LP ticket, former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose who had contested Ekiti Central senatorial seat on the party’s platform among others.
However, in 2007, fortune smiled on the LP as it formally stamped its presence on national politics with the election of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who after he was denied the PDP ticket, defected to the party, contested and won the 2007 Ondo State gubernatorial election.
LP was to slip back into oblivion following the expiration of Mimiko’s tenure and his subsequent defection to the PDP as well as the stepping down as LP National Chairman of the charismatic Dan Nwanyanwu.
However prior to the 2023 election, Obi became the elixir that gave back life to the Labour party. Bringing tremendous goodwill to the party as its presidential candidate, Labour party went into the 2023 presidential election smelling of rose and leaving on its trail streaks of astounding electoral feats. For the first time since its formation, the party produced a governor, eight senators, almost 40 House of Representatives members and over 100 House of Assembly members across the states. And Obi himself recorded over six million votes as declared by INEC though LP supporters insist he scored more than that figure and infact won the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Abure is not taking his ouster lightly. In a swift reaction, Abure rejected the 29-member caretaker committee, describing it as null and void. Speaking through the National Publicity secretary of his faction, Obiorah Ifoh, Abure said in a statement: “The so-called meeting in Umuahia is a charade, a waste of time and resources of Abia People. As clearly stated in our previous statement, the Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, and others who converged on Umuahia have no power within the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act and even within the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to convene any meeting of the party.
“The premise on which Governor Alex Otti called the meeting is not only faulty but mischievous. The government business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondences which are done in writing. As we speak, there is no communication whatsoever from INEC to the party as regards any objection to the conduct of the National Convention.
“We challenge Alex Otti to produce the official letter addressed to him from INEC on the subject matter. There is no vacuum in the leadership of the party. Consequently, the so-called caretaker committee set up by the governor of Abia State is not known to the constitution of the party and can best be described as a department in the Abia State Government House.”
Days later the faction followed up its rejection of the caretaker committee with an announcement that Obi, Governor Otti and members of the National Assembly from the party would no longer enjoy automatic ticket for the 2027 election.
However, Osuntokun has lashed at Abure dismissing him as delusional. “It is not for him (Abure) to decide who will be the candidate or not. This is a fundamental misunderstanding coming from someone prone to a delusion of grandeur. How can a party chairman announce such a thing? It means he has already decided who gets the presidential ticket. It defies logic.
“The Labour Party, on account of the strength and capacity displayed (at the last election), had assured many that Obi and Otti would retain their tickets”
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