By Michael Chibuzo
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi is seriously mulling abandoning the Labour Party following the deepening leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party. The crisis in LP, which earlier took the form of a leadership tussle between two factional National Chairmen, Julius Abure and Lamidi Apapa has taken new dimension in recent weeks ahead of the party’s national convention where a new leadership is expected to emerge.
A new front opened up in the Labour Party crisis with the entrance of the Nigerian Labour Congress into the fray. NLC are the registered trustees of Labour Party through its political commission. The LP and the NLC had a public fall out when it emerged that the Abure-led leadership of the Labour Party were secretly planning a national convention which was shifted to March 27th, 2024 with Umuahia, Abia State selected as the venue.
The NLC Political Commission immediately wrote an open letter calling for the resignation of Julius Abure as Labour Party national chairman accusing him of turning to a sole administrator and secretly planning to unilaterally hold a national convention. The House of Representatives caucus of the Labour Party also called for the postponement of the convention to allow for more consultation. Since then other stakeholders of the party have also weighed in on the matter with most of them calling on Abure to either resign or postpone the national convention.
What many neutral observers may not have noticed is that beneath the surface, the crisis currently rocking the Labour Party is a supremacy battle between the Mr. Peter Obi, the former presidential candidate and assumed national leader of the party and Dr. Alex Otti, the only governor elected on the platform of the Labour Party in Nigeria. Mr. Peter Obi has bestowed the title of the National Leader of the Labour Party on himself by virtue of the fact that he brought considerable force and popularity into the Labour Party.
However, in the Labour Party Constitution, the National Leader of the party is the highest ranking elected official in the party. Currently, Alex Otti is the highest ranking elected official in Labour Party by virtue of his position as the Executive Governor of Abia State. So, ordinarily, Alex Otti is meant to wield considerable influence on the party and its leadership selection process.
However, it is understood that Mr. Peter Obi with an eye on 2027 second presidential bid wants to personally select new members of the National Working Committee of the Labour Party that will be loyal to him. Unfortunately, current chairman of the party, Julius Abure does not feature in Peter Obi’s future plans after the duo fell out over handling of donations to the party and ObiDatti Campaign Council.
Mr. Peter Obi fired the first salvo at Abure, albeit indirectly through the suspended National Treasurer of the party, Ms Oluchi Oparah who accused Abure of embezzlement of party funds to the tune of N3.5 billion and called for Abure to account for these funds. Before then, many had been calling on Peter Obi and his campaign council to give account of funds it generated through donations in line with the promise they made through Aisha Yesufu who served as the Director of Finance of the ObiDatti campaign council.
Peter Obi and Aisha Yesufu had to hurriedly call a press conference where a controversial account of funds generated was made, which did not include millions of dollars diaspora supporters of Mr. Peter Obi donated to his campaign. At the press conference, Peter Obi called for an independent audit of the funds received by the Labour Party (meanwhile he did not call for an independent audit of the ObiDatti campaign council funds) and investigation of the allegations leveled against Abure by the suspended national treasurer, Ms. Oparah. This last part was the main reason for the press conference by Peter Obi and not necessarily to render his own account.
Abure saw the Peter Obi press conference, which had no input from the party and understood that the battle line had been drawn. It was easy to read the handwriting on the wall that Peter Obi wishes to see Abure gone. Abure had to rally the other members of the NWC still loyal to him (and they are many of them because Peter Obi does not fund the party and prefers to run an independent Obidient structure to the frustration of many LP NWC members).
Alex Otti enters the fray
Julius Abure and other NWC members of the Labour Party saw that they were in danger of being swept away if Peter Obi was allowed to have his way, decided to gravitate towards Gov. Alex Otti. Abure convinced Alex Otti that he is the National Leader of the Labour Party constitutionally before Mr. Peter Obi and should therefore have a major say on who the National Chairman of the party should be just as seen in the APC and PDP where the president or the governors play a major role as the case may be.
Alex Otti apparently bought the idea and endorsed Abure to be returned as National Chairman of the Labour Party. It was at this point that the venue of the secret national convention and date were changed from 29th March in Benin City, Edo State to March 27th in Umuahia, Abia State. A letter to INEC informing them of the change of dates and venue eventually got leaked and thus the open battle commenced.
Peter Obi, seeing that control of the Labour Party is slipping away from him had to ask his private army of supporters, the Obidients to start attacking Abure and calling for his resignation. He also instigated the Joe Ajaero leadership of the NLC to enter the fray and put pressure on Abure. Peter Obi most likely promised NLC President, Joe Ajaero to support him to emerge as the next National Chairman of the Labour Party.
It is telling that despite the picketing of the Labour Party secretariats across the country by the NLC and the war of words between Abure and the NLC, the duo of Alex Otti and Mr. Peter Obi have maintained graveyard silence on the crisis. This shows that they are simply allowing their fronts to lead the cold war between them in the meantime. As March 27th draws near, it will be interesting to know who blinks first, Alex Otti or Mr. Peter Obi.