By John Alechenu
With 6,101,533 votes representing 25.40 percent of the total votes cast in the 2023 Presidential election, the Labour Party, LP, and its Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, registered their presence as a force to be reckoned with on Nigeria’s national political landscape.
Observers of political events took note of the fact that Obi’s entrance into the LP after defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, only weeks earlier turned the race for Nigeria’s topmost job from a two horse race to a three horse race.
Soon after the elections and the litigations which soon followed, the Labour Party descended into chaos with a struggle over leadership positions by power brokers who hitherto shelved their differences to prosecute the 2023 general election.
First, it was a dispute between the party’s former National Secretary, who later became National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure and the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, over the National Chairmanship.
After a series of litigation, the combatants suspended the fight.
Temporary ruptured truce
However, the temporary truce was ruptured when the party’s former National Treasurer, Ms. Oluchi Okpara launched a ferocious attack on Abure’s credibility and leadership.
She accused the party leader of failing to account for over N3.6 billion of party funds generated from the sale of nomination and declaration of interest forms as well as donors before, during and after the 2023 polls.
The accusations attracted the intervention of Peter Obi who demanded a forensic audit of the party’s finances and the publication of the outcome.
The outcome of this request is yet to see the light of day.
Amidst all these, the tenure of the Abure-led National Working Committee, NWC, which was extended by one year because of the 2003 elections, was nearing its end.
This set off a chain of reactions forcing the crisis to take a dramatic turn with several persons laying claim to the party’s leadership. The party became polarized into three main camps: those loyal to Julius Abure, the Obidient group, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, as represented by the NLC- Political Commission.
The crisis reached its peak after Abure’s tenure as national chairman was said to have expired in March 2024.
Since then, things have been falling apart.
Before the expiration of Abure’s tenure as National Chairman, he and his loyalists converged on Nnewi, Anambra State on March 27, 2024, and held a national convention.
The Convention left out key party stakeholders including Obi, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti and the leadership of the NLC, among others.
It was at this event that Abure’s tenure was said to have been renewed for a four-year term.
In what appears to be a response to this development, Obi, Otti and other stakeholders met in Umuahia, the Abia State capital on September 4, 2024, and empanelled a 29-member National Caretaker Committee under the leadership of Senators Esther Usman and Darlington Nwokocha, as Chairman and Secretary respectively.
The committee was given 90 days within which to organise and conduct congresses at all levels and a national convention to elect new party leaders. This was not to be as Abure went to court to challenge the existence of this new body.
Unshaken, the Otti-led group, which fully supported the Usman-led LP-NCC, continued their activities under the radar while awaiting the court ruling.
They worked having been convinced that with Mr Abure’s emergence, on March 27, 2024, the Nnewi convention would not stand even in court.
Their position was strengthened by the fact that it was conducted in flagrant disregard for the terms agreed in a consent judgment it entered into by Abure and party leaders following the intervention of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the early stages of the leadership tussle.
This, according to the Otti-led group, created a vacuum in the party’s leadership.
It stated: “You will recall that the Labour Party has 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 after the settlement brokered by INEC on 27 June 2022.
“This settlement was founded on the consent court judgment by Justice Gabriel Kolawole on 20 March 2018.
“A major part of the settlement states that an all-inclusive national convention, preceded by Ward, LG, and State congresses, shall be convened not later than one year after signing the terms of the settlement. Because of the 2023 election, the implementation of this agreement was deferred by one year to 2024.”
Abure’s attempt to circumvent procedure
An Anambra State chieftain of the party, Senator Victor Umeh, accused Abure of attempting to circumvent procedure by side-stepping the process of convening a national convention which ought to begin from the ward up.
Umeh said: “The Process begins at the ward level with Ward congresses, Local Government Congresses, and State Congresses all these must happen before a national convention is conducted.”
Abure challenged this in court and “won” at the High Court and Appeal Court.
However, the LP-NCC took the matter to the Supreme Court and the court gave judgment in which it quashed Abure’s victory at the lower courts on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court judgment has been given various interpretations by the opposing camps.
While Abure has maintained that his chairmanship remains valid and grounded in the party’s constitution, Peter Obi, Governor Otti and other stakeholders think differently.
Ahead of the release of the Certified True Copy, CTC, of the Supreme Court judgment, the Abure-led National Working Committee convened a National Executive Council, NEC, meeting which not only affirmed his leadership via a vote of confidence on his leadership, it also threatened disciplinary action against Obi and Otti, should they go ahead with their planned parallel NEC meeting scheduled for last week Wednesday.
The release of the CTC of the Supreme Court judgment which was hailed by all the warring groups has again emboldened claimants to the chairmanship seat to make fresh moves to assert themselves on the party.
As things stand today, the party appears split into three camps, namely: those loyal to Julius Abure, those loyal to the LP-NCC and a small faction loyal to Alhaji Lamidi Apapa, who has emerged from the shadows to also stake a claim.
While all agree that the Supreme Court judgment grants political parties the autonomy to manage their internal affairs, opposing camps interpret this to suit their bias.
Abure’s faction claims the judgment validates his leadership, while the Obi-Otti group argues that the Court’s dismissal of Abure’s cross-appeal and upholding Senator Usman’s appeal, validates the position of stakeholders opposed to Abure’s continued stay in office as chairman.
At the just concluded NEC meeting and Stakeholders’ Interactive Town Hall, the party’s NEC declared that the Nnewi convention that produced Abure failed in every aspect because due process was ignored therefore his rule was legitimate.
Governor Otti, who is one of nine statutory members of the party’s NEC whose tenure still subsists following his election in 2023, reeled out a series of steps he and other party leaders took to make Abure see reason but he remained adamant.
According to him, Abure was offered the position of Board of Trustees Chairman in a bid to give him a soft landing to no avail.
Otti said: “He went ahead to stay when his tenure and those of the NWC (National Working Committee) had expired.
“The correct procedure if you still want to be national chairman is to start from the ward congress, state congress and zonal congress, where the delegates would emerge for the national convention and everyone is free to contest.”
Speaking in the same vein at the event, Obi said: “Our Governor has said it. Let’s do the right thing. Let’s go and do it from the ward to local government, to state, to zone, and then come and do it nationally. Everybody’s free to contest. Everybody’s free to contest. Nobody is excluded. I will ensure fairness.”
Defiant Abure
Abure has, however, remained defiant.
In a series of statements issued by his faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, told those who care to listen that Otti and Obi were deluding themselves into thinking that their attempt to hijack the party structure would succeed.
Ifoh said: “Those two and other party outlaws took their desperation to a ridiculous level by attempting to pressure INEC to accept their interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment.
“There is nowhere in the Constitution of our great party that a so-called National Caretaker Committee was mentioned in our leadership structure. Strangely, persons who have no constitutionally assigned roles will arrogate to themselves powers that don’t exist.”
The situation has become increasingly heated, with Abure’s faction threatening fire and brimstone.
The party’s internal conflicts have raised concerns about its ability to present a united front ahead of the 2027 general elections.
As the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim puts it, “Unless the opposition parties can put their house in order… it will be difficult for them to convince Nigerians to vote for them.”
The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties CUPP, Chief Peter Ameh is, however, optimistic that sooner than later, the opposition which the LP was prepared to lead will get its acts together.
Ameh said: “I see an end to the trouble bedevilling the LP. The Supreme Court judgment has set the pace all the party needs now is to follow.
“All parties must respect the court judgment and move forward. The Caretaker Committee must now open the party’s doors for Nigerians who have something to offer to make meaningful progress.”
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