In the aftermath of the February 25, 2023, presidential elections in which the Labour Party (LP) and its flag bearer, Mr Peter Obi, exceeded even their own expectations in terms of the number of states won and the spread of its support base, the party began to affect an exaggerated sense of its political worth and significance. Not even its far less stellar outing in the March 18 governorship elections in which the LP only managed to win in Abia State could bring the party leaders down to reality from their delusional flights of fancy.
Indeed, having won 12 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as Lagos State, where he led with approximately 10,000 votes, Peter Obi scandalously claimed to have won an election in which he came third. Of course, no empirical or logically credible reasons needed to be offered for this utterly fictitious claim. Mr. Obi’s assertion and that of his fellow LP co-travelers were sufficient for those hooked on the opium and frenzy of the ‘Obidient Movement’, a largely amorphous and headless group within the LP, that came to constitute the core of Obi’s and the party’s electoral strength.
Indeed, even beyond the LP, a number of pathetically naive elements, particularly youths, began to romanticize the party as the vehicle capable of midwifing the New Nigeria of our dreams. The first shocker for those who dwelt in this imaginary universe was the rejection by the LP members of the National Assembly of the suggestion in several quarters that they should dissociate themselves from the widely criticized decision of the National Assembly leadership to procure imported Special Utility Vehicles worth over N100 million each for members of the legislature in these hard times.
Their turning down of the largesse, it was argued, would help to enhance their credibility and integrity and also portray the LP as being ideologically distinct from the other major parties. But they would not budge. Who would spit out a juicy morsel from his mouth in the name of a value like integrity lacking in concreteness to paraphrase the great Chinua Achebe? The LP does not necessarily stand on an ethically superior moral plane to the other parties.
The breakout of the equivalent of a civil war within the leadership of the LP, leading to a bifurcation between Barrister Julius Abure and the Lamidi Apapa as well as Mr Abayomi Arabambi factions was again to help in reinforcing the notion that what bound the LP together was not necessarily more altruistic and noble than obtained in other parties. Charges of criminal infractions of the law including forgery of party documents and financial malfeasance were leveled against Abure by the Apapa and Arabambi faction. At this juncture, the presidential candidate, Mr Obi, and the ordinarily temperamental, impetuous, abrasive and belligerent Comrade Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Conference, decided to hold their peace. Apparently, they heard nothing and saw nothing.
But when it became clear that the wily Julius Abure was planning a National Convention of the LP in Umuahia scheduled for March 27, all hell was let loose. Critical stakeholders including members of the House of Representatives caucus of the party and the Trade Union veterans, comprising respected former leaders of the trade union movement, urged that the National Convention be put off. They insisted that ward, local government and state congresses should hold before the National Convention which must be planned, organized and supervised by an expanded Board of Trustees of the party taking on board all stakeholders including new members.
Of course, the National Convention has since taken place in Nnewi, Anambra State, and Abure and other members of his executive re-elected as National Chairman for another term. The picketing of the LP offices nationwide by members of the NLC obviously under the instigation of Joe Ajaero failed woefully to frustrate Julius Abure’s plans. Until a political solution is found to the impasse or judicial intervention is sought, Abure is sitting tight unto the Chairmanship seat alongside other members of his executive.
Speaking on the crisis on a national television station recently, Ajaero claimed that the LP was formed to allow ordinary members to contest and win elections, pointing out that even the party’s presidential candidate in the last election did not belong to any labour union. In his words on that occasion, “Any Nigerian that wants to belong to the LP is free. The reason we formed the LP is that Nigerian workers under the minimum wage cannot buy form and contest elections under any of the political parties be it APC or PDP. That’s why we say we must have our own political party where a messenger, or clerk can contest elections and win. Even Okada riders are in the National Assembly today through the Labour Party.”
If this is the LP and NLC’s contribution to the evolution of political development and democracy in Nigeria, nothing could be more tragic. So for Ajaero and his LP, the quality of those who are elected into the national legislature in terms, for instance, of educational attainment or professional accomplishment does not matter? In any case, it is untrue that the idea of forming a LP was to give poor Nigerians the opportunity to contest for elections without stress. If so, how and why did the erstwhile National Treasurer of the LP, Ms Oluchi Opara, publicly allege that Abure be made to account for over N3.5 billion she claimed the party received from sale of forms and donations for the 2023 elections? In addition, Abure was accused of selling the nomination and expression of interest forms for the forthcoming Edo governorship elections for N30 million? Is it not instructive that she was suspended for six months for allegedly bringing the party to disrepute?
There is no doubt that a party like the LP is direly needed on Nigeria’s political terrain. It is the kind of party, if properly conceived, organized and efficiently run, that can serve as a genuine ideological alternative to the APC and PDP. Unfortunately, the Labour careerists and aristocrats at the helm of the Labour movement in this dispensation especially, have opted to make the party available to all kinds of characters who cannot make it under their previous parties and thus seek to utilize the LP as a Special Purpose Vehicle to achieve their objectives. It does not matter how ideologically vacuous and philosophically barren such opportunistic aspirants are.
A group within the NLC responsible for this appalling state of affairs in the LP, in the view of this column, are the Trade Union Veterans comprising illustrious past leaders of the NLC who are also, presumably, founding fathers of the LP. This group is made up of the pioneer President of the NLC, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu; the just departed 2nd President of the NLC, Comrade Ali Chiroma; the pioneer General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Aliu Dangiwa; the second National Secretary of the NLC, Comrade S.O. Oshidipe; as well as BOT Chairman and pioneer Chairman of the LP, Comrade Lawson Osagie.
In a written statement prior to the holding of the controversial National Convention by the Abure faction, these veterans had lamented that “We cannot sit down and continue to watch as the ideals, principles and ethical values of the Labour Party we toiled so much to build over the decades are being rubbished by one man. Consequently, we urge Abure to step aside now as the National Chairman of the Labour Party and in his place, the BOT should appoint a Caretaker National Chairman that will organize congresses in the states before the National Convention can be convened”.
These eminent trade union leaders in my view spoke too little, too late and they apportion blame only on one side when the crisis is a function of the actions and inactions of various parties on different divides of the Labour movement. I find the statement issued at a press conference in Abuja by a former Vice President of the NLC, Comrade Isah Tijjani, more dispassionate and nuanced. He did a thorough analysis of the situation and concluded Abure had failed in his leadership of the LP while being encumbered by too many scandals and that Joe Ajaero had also failed abysmally in his role as National President of the NLC.
In his words, “In this connection, our good members are hereby strongly reaffirming their cardinal demand that Abure must go. Hence, our members will not despair in pointing out the many failings of comrade Ajaero, especially in the sphere of Labour unionism, which clearly demonstrate that his well-known choleric temperament and overly undemocratic character have made him totally unsuitable for leadership”. In other words, both Abure and Ajaero must go if the LP is to be salvaged and given a fresh lease of life and also to enable the NLC retrieve its credibility and integrity as an essentially non-partisan organization.
The trade union movement in Nigeria is older than any of the major parties. It is a tragic irony that both the NLC and TUC with reported combined membership strength of at least 10 million workers could not massively mobilize its members to vote for a credible, progressive and ideologically informed candidate in successive elections. Indeed, I do not see any party with an organizational reach across the country compared to the Labour movement. Rather, for the 2023 presidential elections, the LP had to surrender its ticket to Peter Obi who brought nothing but ethnic and religious sentiments to galvanize support for the LP. This is a great setback for both the Labour movement and the LP which they must begin to remedy now. The labour movement is also essentially a class-based one and no organization is better placed to mobilize people across primordial, religious, and ethnic divides and to vote on the basis of merit-driven criteria.