Things are falling apart for the Labour Party. From relative obscurity, the LP emerged as a third force in Nigerian politics almost overnight, following the entrance of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi into the party ahead of the election. The youth embraced the LP.
But, the LP is currently facing a serious challenge. Internal squabble surfaced within the party, after the general election, following allegations of corruption against its National Chairman, Julius Abure. One allegation surfaced after another; puting the national chairman under pressure to defend his integrity and that of the party. This development, it is said, has dealt a heavy blow to the image of the party that had embodied the hope of many youths.
Abure’s trouble began after the last general elections when some party members, led by Lamidi Apapa and Abayomi Arabambi, accused him of mismanaging the party’s campaign fund. The Apapa-led faction, through a series of court cases, tried to lay claim to the leadership of the party at the national level, but the Court of Appeal eventually upheld the Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) as the authentic one. Besides, members of the Apapa faction were easily dismissed as moles planted by the ruling party to destabilise the LP.
However, the crisis within the party took a dangerous dimension last week, with members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) picketing the party’s national secretariat and some of its state offices. The NLC accused Abure of running the affairs of the LP as a sole administrator. It contends that the party is owned by Nigerian workers and that they are not going to have a dictator running the party as he pleases.
Speaking when workers occupied the party’s headquarters in Abuja, the Deputy President of the NLC’s Political Commission, Dr Theophilus Ndubuaku, said the picketing was to express workers’ grievances towards Abure’s administration of the party. He said: “Nigeria is not the only country that has a Labour Party backed by the Organised Labour. There are so many others. Why would our own be different? The essence of registering a Labour Party in this country is not only to become a president or hold an office but also to create a viable opposition and in any country where there is no viable opposition, there would be dictatorship. The reason we set up this party is to make us have good governance in this country.”
Ndubuaku faulted what he described as the unilateral convocation of the national convention without consulting the relevant stakeholders. He said: “There have been court judgments declaring that the Labour Party is owned by the NLC and there has been intervention by INEC, telling Abure to appoint Board of Trustees (BOT) members and organize an all-inclusive convention. But what we now see is a convention that we do not know who and who are going to be at that convention and the elected officers in the National Assembly thought he insulted them.
“You will not believe that a day before Abure issued the notice of the convention, he was with the NLC president and the political commission in the NLC office without telling them. All we are saying is that we do not want Abure; he should resign and go. He cannot be the sole administrator of the Labour Party.”
The Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Bello Ismail, added that the commission had been engaging Abure, thinking he was following due process, but was disappointed at the end of the day. His words: “We were also thinking he was going to organise a convention, in line with the understanding with labour to have an all-inclusive convention.
“But, Abure, knowing that he can never survive an all-inclusive convention wanted to do a convention in the night. Those in the NLC Political Commission have made a lot of efforts to reach this state of taking over our party by ourselves. We would insist that all democratic norms are fulfilled. We will insist that workers take back their party.
“We want a convention, where we are all the stakeholders and we are very active and all will participate. We do not want a convention where one man will hand-pick the officers of the party. We want a convention where in the 37 states of the federation, all stakeholders, including workers, youths, young people, and informal workers can have a say in the party.
“We are not money people, but we have a voice and we want a party where, without money, we can participate, and that is what the Labour Party offers. Now, it is in the hands of this usurper, he is looking for N30 million, N40 million, and so on to buy forms, excluding the people who founded the party. Enough is enough, Abure must go.”
In a swift reaction, the LP described the forcible entry of NLC members into its headquarters and secretariat as illegal and criminal. Its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said the party was appalled by the desperation exhibited by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero. Ifoh said: “The party notes that the president of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero’s greed and inordinate ambition have pushed him into losing every sense of discretion and decency in his recent conduct, be it in his affairs with the workers or even the government.
“As a party, we wonder how Ajaero would lead a band of lawless persons who are known to have partisan interests in other major political parties such as the PDP and the APC against a recognized independent political party. Ajaero’s continuous claim that the NLC owns the Labour Party is not in any way supported by either the Electoral Act or the Constitution. For his information, a political party is owned by those who are card-carrying or financial members of the party.
“We are aware that more than 90 per cent of the members of the NLC have not met this condition and therefore cannot claim to be the owners of the party. The constitution also provides that no organisation can own any other organisation. The NLC as an organisation can therefore not claim the ownership of the Labour Party.”
The latest LP crisis has been narrowed down to the clamour for Abure’s removal as national chairman. This is not unconnected to his unending alleged financial scandals. Though the Abure leadership has continued to deny any financial impropriety, insisting that the party is open to a forensic audit of its accounts, the accusation has refused to go away.
There is also the claim that his continued occupation of the national chairmanship position is illegal because no convention elected him. This viewpoint was echoed by former LP Deputy National Chairman, Callistus Okafor. The former national officer who spoke on Arise Television last Friday criticized what he described as Abure’s move to secretly hold a convention without elected delegates and conduct of ward, local governments and state congresses.
Okafor added: “I must tell you that the last time the LP held its convention was in 2014 in Akure, Ondo State. Since then, no convention has been held. Abure knelt and begged that he should be made a member of the NWC in our 2014 convention. Abure was made Assistant Organising Secretary. In our constitution, there is no provision for the office of the Assistant Organising Secretary but he was chosen for that office because he pleaded for it.
“No convention elected Abure as LP national chairman. All those parading themselves as members of the NWC are sitting on illegality.”
Abure is fighting for survival on different fronts. Despite the lingering accusations against him, he had managed to hang on, with the backing of Obi and his supporters across the country, members of the Obidient Movement who are not necessarily card-carrying members of the LP.
But, indications are that Obi and his supporters have abandoned Abure to his fate and are currently searching for a new national chairman. The Lagos State chapter openly called for the resignation of Mr Abure last week. A source within the party said a former Deputy National Campaign Manager of the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Comrade Isaac Bulama is being considered as the next national chairman.
It was Abure’s move to hold a national convention today (Wednesday, March 27) without due process, as his opponents allege, that deepened the crisis within the party. He was accused of planning to hold the convention in Umuahia, the Abia State capital. The planned convention was captured in a notice issued to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 13, 2024. Stakeholders in the party, it is said, were against the convention. For instance, the Abure-led NWC is at loggerheads with members of the LP National Caucus in the House of Representatives, over the alleged plan to conduct the convention without the input of stakeholders. They alleged that Abure intended to impose leadership on the party.
Besides, the revelations about a month ago by a former LP National Treasurer, Mrs Oluchi Oparah, do not portray Abure and the LP in a good light. She accused Abure of misappropriation of N3 billion out of the N3.5 billion purportedly raised for the 2023 general election campaign. Mrs Oparah who spoke at a press conference in Abuja, said under Abure’s watch, over N3.5 billion was raised from the sale of nomination forms for the 2023 general elections.
She revealed that during off-cycle elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states last year, the party also raised around N958 million from nomination forms and donations. She added: “These funds have completely vanished under Abure’s oversight – with zero paper trail. While on a fundraising tour in the United States in August 2023, Mr. Abure and his cronies raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from the party’s diaspora community.
“To date, he has not declared a single dollar to me or the NWC, essentially stealing donations meant for the party’s development. Indeed, not a single cent from donations received was ever paid into any of the party’s accounts.”
Mrs Oparah said since assuming office in 2021, Abure has engaged in a series of actions that not only undermine the principles upon which the Labour Party was founded but also constitute grave violations of trust and fiduciary responsibility.
She was subsequently suspended for six months, for making such allegations and bringing the party to disrepute.
In his reaction to the allegations, Ifoh said Oparah’s allegations were malicious. He said the national treasurer was under some external influences and merely read out a concocted statement drafted by their detractors to further tar the image of the party.
Ifoh said the LP did not earn N3.5 billion as claimed and that the national chairman did not embezzle any money that belonged to the party as alleged. His words: “The records are there, except that Ms Oluchi Oparah doesn’t even understand simple accounting, even as a treasurer. An external auditor is engaged by the party and our account is under constant scrutiny of INEC or other regulatory bodies.”
Observers believe the current division and allegations of corruption have undermined the integrity of the party. In a multi-party democracy, a strong and virile opposition is a necessity to keep the party in power in check.
The Chairman of the Partners for Electoral Reform, a non-governmental organisation, Ezenwa Nwagwu echoed this viewpoint.
He said the infighting and internal divisions within opposition parties “have weakened their unity and effectiveness, making it harder to present a cohesive alternative to the ruling party”. He added: “But now, cases of corruption and a clear violation of laws by opposition figures are providing ethical challenges that make it harder for them to challenge the government.
“Some people might find some of my positions very uncomfortable. But to transform our country, we must embrace some hard truth and continue to educate Nigerians on how to hold our politicians to account, whether in government or out of government.
“Is the economy in a bad state? Yes. Is there a heightened security challenge? Yes. But in the wake of the internal crisis and corruption allegations rocking the leadership of the opposition party, especially the Labour Party, one wonders how such opposition can hold the government in power to account.”
Credit: The Nation
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