LP: Twists and Turns As Leadership Crisis Festers

ANAYO EZUGWU examines the new dimension in the crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP), following the recent directive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Julius Abure should stop parading himself as the national chairman of the party

The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) has assumed another dimension following the directive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Julius Abure should cease parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

The directive was outlined in a counter-affidavit filed by the Executive Officer in INEC’s Litigation and Prosecution Department, Ayuba Mohammed, in suit NO. FHC/ ABJ/CS/1271/2024, in response to a suit brought by LP challenging its exclusion from the commission’s refresher training for uploading party agents ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

This development is consequent of the expiration of Abure’s tenure on June 9 as confirmed by the secretary of party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Salisu Mohammad.

INEC claimed it did not monitor, participate in, or recognise the purported national convention of LP held on March 27 in Anambra State, where Abure claimed to have been re-elected.

The electoral commission argued that the convention was conducted in breach of the Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act, INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties and LP’s constitution. Citing its regulations, INEC stated that it only deals with valid and subsisting national chairmen and secretaries of political parties in issuing notices and correspondence.

Abule-led NWC reacts

Reacting to INEC’s directive, the factional National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, said the Federal Government through the electoral commission is punishing the party for supporting Governor Alex Otti of Abia State and the 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi.

His words: “We the leadership of the Labour Party wish to bring to your notice the recent development in the party, particularly, the efforts by some of the leaders of the party including the former presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi and the Abia State governor, Alex Otti, among others to annex the power of the leadership of the party through subterranean means using the INEC as their launching pad.

“In the last few days, the media has been awash with INEC’s counter affidavit to the effect that the tenure of the current executive has expired which was supposed to be a justification for the inglorious, purported Umuahia stakeholders meeting, where a caretaker committee was produced.

“You will recall that Peter Obi and Alex Otti, a few weeks ago, convened an illegal stakeholders’ meeting in Umuahia, where they handpicked some of their cronies, a 29-member caretaker committee in the

There is no crisis in the Labour Party. It is only that Abure and his NWC refused to admit that their tenure has ended

most undemocratic fashion as leaders of their faction of the party. They subsequently wrote a letter to the INEC on September 6, informing the commission of the purported and nonexistent leadership crisis in the party.

“They hinged their decision on the fact that INEC informed them that the present National Working Committee of the party no longer have a valid tenure after June 2024 and because INEC also did not monitor the Nnewi convention of the party held on the March 26, 2024, the commission has ceased from transacting business with the party.

“As you are aware, the party has since sued INEC challenging its exclusion from the commission’s refresher training for uploading party agents ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

However, INEC had in a counteraffidavit, filed in response to our suit argued that the Labour Party’s leadership, including Julius Abure, is now invalid, stressing that it does not recognise the party’s March 2024 national convention, which re-elected Abure as chairman.

“The leadership of the Labour Party is however miffed by the actions of our leaders including our former presidential candidate Peter Obi and the only Labour Party governor, Dr. Alex Otti, who should be defending the party at this auspicious and trying moment.

They ought to know that the Labour Party is going through this challenging time simply because of its role in defending both leaders during the 2023 general election.

“For the benefit of hindsight, not a few Nigerians will forget how the Labour Party reduced its guards in accommodating some of these leaders when they were denied tickets in their former political parties.

Many of these men who held several political offices but suddenly turned warriors today, seeking the head of Julius Abure to be served on a platter, were rolling on the floor, begging for a ticket.

“Some couldn’t even afford to pay for the nomination forms. Labour Party leadership went to the trenches with our presidential candidate, cascading through the nooks and crannies of Nigeria canvassing for votes. We went through the entire judicial hurdles and dared the principalities and powers. We were haunted, maligned and in some cases chased around by agents of the state because of our unflinching commitment and uncompromised standing with our Presidential candidate.

“The same LP leadership stood by our then governorship candidate in Abia through thick and thin, snubbing all sorts of pressures, weathering the political and judicial storms to ensure that victory was achieved. Today, these leaders are now dancing ‘Gwo gwo gwo ngwo’ with us. What a shame, what a betrayal. “Every Nigerian alive today knows the ignoble role INEC played in the 2023 general election and how the electoral will of the people was dashed.

It amazes us that those who suffered from this INEC’s ineptitude in 2023, are now joining forces with the Commission against the Party leadership. For these leaders, there is no qualms to leverage the INEC’s standpoint of illegality to attempt to seize the leadership of the party. “We sincerely want to advise these our leaders that INEC is and can never be the model on which to launch their annexation agenda. The 2023 saga is still fresh. In one breath, we demonised INEC, in another second, you are fraternizing with them.

Is it not paradoxical that some of these leaders who were victims of INEC’s dereliction and mismanagement of the 2023 general election are now the ones quoting INEC, and joining forces with it, just to victimize the leadership of the Labour Party? “Is it not seemingly absurd that the INEC you are embracing today and welcoming with open arms is the same INEC, which betrayed us during the last election? I ask: Where was this loyalty when INEC failed to protect the will of the people in 2023?

Let us not be fooled, my friends. INEC has not changed, and come 2027, they will once again serve you the portage with the same dish. “In as much as we are not saying that Abure or his executive members must remain in office ad-infinitum, however, we would like to make it abundantly clear that this current National Working Committee is a product of a valid convention.

It will take another convention in 2028 to enthrone a new executive. It is even surprising that some of the dramatis personae who played key roles in the success of the convention are now the ones leading the vanguard to exterminate the product of the convention.

“We want to put it on record that the Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice J.K Omotosho had declared that the national convention of the party held in Nnewi on March 26, 2024, is valid and one conducted in line with the requirement of both the 2022 Electoral Act and Labour Party constitution.

“The Supreme Court in several judgements had also ruled that Issues regarding delegates at a national convention or how the convention is planned and executed by a political party are outside the jurisdiction of any court of the land being internal affairs of – such a arty.

Therefore, not even INEC can deregister the Labour Party as being peddled by some of our leaders. “INEC as an institution is bound to respect the laws of the land as clearly stated in Sections 82(1), 82(3) and 82(5) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Articles 7, 13(1), 13(1) (b) (ii), 13(1) (b) (viii) and 13 (1) (ix) of the party constitution and cannot afford to act irrational even if it wants to.”

An endless crisis

The protracted nature of the crisis rocking LP can be attributed to leadership struggle, ideological differences and lack of internal democracy. However, external pressures seem to have hindered the party from resolving its challenges. A few weeks ago, some LP stakeholders gathered at Umuahia, the Abia State capital to deliberate on how to salvage the party.

The convener and chief host, Governor Otti, said those worried about how the party was drifting needed to intervene. The expiration of the tenure of office of Abure and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) was the major nagging problem before them.

The tenure of the Abure-led NWC elapsed on June 10, 2023, and there was the need for a convention to choose new leaders or renew their mandate. However, the envisaged convention did not happen and the party technically went into a leadership vacuum even though Abure was still parading himself as the national chairman.

He had earlier this year been returned as national chairman under questionable circumstances at a convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State. Not a few stakeholders and interest groups raised eyebrows and kicked against the convention, citing its noninclusiveness and faulty process.

The biggest flaw that marred the so-called convention, observers say, was that it was not preceded by congresses at the ward, local government and state levels, where delegates for the national convention ought to have been elected.

Also, the Nnewi convention was not only held without consultation, but the national officers elected at the event also ran contrary to the party’s zoning arrangement. Indications are that the party intends to retain the zoning of its presidential ticket to the South in 2027. However, the emergence of Abure who hails from Edo State as national chairman would disrupt the arrangement.

Abure remains adamant

In his defence, Abure insisted that both the convention and the renewal of his mandate followed due process. He claimed that both Governor Otti and Obi were quite in the know and backed the convention and its outcome.

He also pointed out that Abia State was represented at the convention and that deputy governor of the state, Ikechukwu Emetu, led its delegates. Abure’s pariah status became obvious to many stakeholders when the INEC took a firm stand by refusing to recognize him and other members of his NWC. The election management body maintained that it was not aware about the Nnewi convention, so it did not monitor the exercise.

It was against this backdrop that a former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman emerged as the chairman of the LP’s 29-member caretaker committee, with Darlington Nwokocha as secretary at the Umuahia meeting. Senator Victor Umeh, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District LP, said the Usman-led caretaker committee emerged through what he described as a “doctrine of necessity.”

Party stakeholders endorse devt

As it stands, the change of guard in LP’s leadership has the backing of most of the party’s stakeholders. Senator Ireti Kingibe, who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the National Assembly, believes the newly established caretaker committee is a move in the right direction.

The endorsement was made during a four-day free medical outreach she organised for her constituents in Abuja in collaboration with the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. The FCT senator, who maintained that Abure’s tenure ended in June 2023, said: “I am in sync with the Nenadi Usmanled committee and back it 100 per cent.

That is the way to go. There is no crisis in the Labour Party. It is only that Abure and his NWC refused to admit that their tenure has ended.” Senator Kingibe added that both Otti and Obi had previously extended Abure’s tenure by one year to recover from the defeat the party suffered in the 2023 presidential election; meaning that with the extension, its tenure expired on June 8, 2024.

Obi, on his part, had at the Umuahia meeting, appealed for peace and understanding among members to enable the party to weather the storm. In his speech at the NEC/Extended Stakeholders meeting, which he chaired, he harped on the need for members to sacrifice for the party’s benefit, even at personal costs.

He cited himself as an example, saying because of “my position” in the crisis rocking the party “I have been called all sorts of names.” He noted that despite this, has remained steadfast in pursuing party interests. “In going forward, let everybody learn to sacrifice for the party,” he said.

The outcome of the meeting in Umuahia cannot stand. It is only a convention organised for that purpose that can remove the national chairman

Beyond leadership tussle

Several factors, including the 2027 presidential election, are responsible for the crisis rocking LP. This could be gleaned from developments within the party.

It went into the last general election with a presidential candidate and a national chairman from the South. This may be one of the reasons why it was rejected in some parts of the North. It is apparent that the party does not want to repeat the same mistake in the next general election.

This partly explains why the stakeholders at the Umuahia meeting ensured that the composition of the caretaker committee reflected the “various interests and tendencies” of the party as its members were drawn from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) as well as National and state Assembly caucuses.

The stakeholders in a five-point communiqué read by LP’s deputy governorship flag bearer in Plateau State in the 2023 elections, Edward Pwajok, declared that there is the need to ensure that there is no vacuum in the party’s NWC.

They consequently charged the caretaker committee “to immediately ensure that the wards, local governments, states and national congresses and conventions of the party are held as soon as possible and all party stakeholders were enjoined to support the committee to achieve its mandate.

No end in sight to crisis

A few days after the Umuahia meeting, which midwifed the interim leadership to steer the affairs of the party, the embattled Abure-led NWC held a NEC meeting in Abuja (last Monday) and resolved to cancel the automatic ticket it previously reserved for Obi and Otti for the 2027 election.

The group said in their resolution that the tickets for all elective positions from the presidency to the state House of Assemblies would be thrown open to all aspirants. It also described the Umuahia meeting as illegal and nullified all the decisions taken.

Ifoh, who spoke on behalf of the Abure group, dismissed the Umuahia meeting and its outcome, describing it as “a charade, a waste of time and resources of Abia people.” He said the Abia governor and others who converged on Umuahia have no power within the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act and even within the 1999 Constitution to convene any meeting of the party.

According to Ifoh, the premise on which Otti convened the meeting is not only faulty but mischievous. Noting that INEC has not written the party to say that the Abure-led NWC is not recognized, Ifoh said that “government business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondences which are done in writing.”

Other members of the Abure-led NWC have also rejected the outcome of the Umuahia meeting. Its Deputy National Chairman, Ayo Olorunfemi, was quoted as saying that the Umuahia meeting has unmasked those “fueling the crisis” in the LP. He labelled Obi and Otti, who convened the meeting as “the people fueling the crisis in the Labour Party”, adding that “they just manifested themselves.”

Olorunfemi, who vowed that the party will deal with the issue via its rule, reminded every member that the party’s constitution is supreme and everyone is duty-bound to respect it irrespective of their status.

The National Vice-Chairman (SouthEast) of the Abure-led NWC, Ceekay Igara, equally rejected the Umuahia resolution, saying: “It is like a drama.”

Igara, who is the immediate past chairman of Abia State LP and a close ally of Governor Otti, said the meeting “is very alien to the party as there is no section of the party’s constitution that covers the meeting.”

Citing the ruling of an Abuja High Court, he argued that if Nigeria is indeed a democratic country guided by laws and guidelines, the outcome of the meeting in Umuahia cannot stand.

It is only a convention organised for that purpose that can remove the national chairman,” Igara maintained. Given the calibre of opposition facing the Abure-led NWC within and outside the party, the group is not likely to enjoy the backing of the majority of members of the party’s and supporters.

However, the widening of the crack in the party created by this development is capable of damaging the LP’s credibility as it prepares for the next general election in 2027. There is no doubt that Abure and his group will constitute a distraction to the party.