•Obiora Ifoh
The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, in this exclusive interview, discusses the party’s internal wrangling, including the controversial Nenadi Usman caretaker committee, the future of Governor Alex Otti and the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, among others, reports The PUNCH.
Excerpts:
Has Governor Alex Otti of Abia State dumped LP?
What’s the big deal about it? It is all speculation. As far as we are concerned, Otti has not told us he is leaving.
Since you claim Otti is still with the LP, is it right to also conclude that your former presidential flagbearer, Peter Obi, is also with your party?
Our former presidential candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti of Abia State are leaders of the Labour Party and have never ceased being leaders of the party. So, I don’t know what else you want us to say. Have they told you that they are no longer members of the Labour Party? Aside from them, we also have so many other leaders in the Labour Party. Some are even senators. The national chairman is equally the leader of the party. So, these are some distractions being put forward by the media to create things that are not there. Our presidential candidate has not left the party and he is still a leader in the party. Our governor in Abia State has also not left and he is still a leader in the party. Until they say otherwise, they are still our leaders.
What if they announce tomorrow that they are no longer in LP?
That is hypothetical. Wait until tomorrow comes. I can’t say more than that.
How about the caretaker committee’s threat to drag Abure and LP to the Supreme Court after the Appeal Court victory?
We do not think that any member of the party would go ahead and demand alternative results after the appeal court has made a declaratory ruling. However, we are working to bring everyone together to see how we can move forward. No party does not have one crisis or the other and the Labour Party is not from the moon. It is also affected by one issue or the other. Whenever one or two people are gathered, there will always be some conflicts here and there. But we have passed through that since last year and have since put our crisis behind us. We have started strategising and I can tell you that the party has put up a lot of programmes since last year that we are pursuing vigorously. For instance, we have started our new membership and the revalidation drive. The result is awesome.
Based on that and the result we got from the online revalidation, we are going ahead with our planned congresses from the ward to the state level. That will put our party in good shape to confront the 2027 general election. We are probably going to start the ward congresses by next month. So we expect to take it that the party has since moved on. We are aware there were setbacks as a result of those challenges, but I can tell you for sure that the party has a lot of internal mechanisms to resolve some of these issues. That is why we have not had any major public interface all these while because the party is handling its issues internally.
Now that the court (appeal) has ruled, I think everybody will abide by that and face the 2027 general election squarely. I can tell you that we are opening our flanks to a whole lot of people. We have a team that has started mobilisation and doing a marvellous job of recruiting more people. I think before the end of December, they inaugurated all the committees down to the ward. If I tell you what has been happening so far, you won’t believe it. But that is where we are presently.
We are going to face 2027 with all seriousness, more than ever before and I can tell you that the result will show how hard we have been working.
LP currently presents the image of a survivor with several bruises from the 2023 elections. With all the leadership crises and defections plaguing the party, how certain is it that the party will bounce back before 2027?
In every election cycle, the moment the poll is concluded and the court also gives a verdict, there are always internal issues in political parties, even among the platforms that won. Some parties take longer time, but the LP’s own ended last year. Many people felt we were robbed in the 2023 election. As a result, they felt their votes did not count. That was why all eyes were on the Labour Party. The truth is that most of the people causing problems in the party are not enemies. They actually want the best for the party. I also know that some politicians are taking it too far by insisting on restructuring that is not necessary. So that was what made us stay longer in the court.
If not, these matters have long been settled early last year. We had to wait patiently for courts to resolve the matter. And now that it has been resolved, we do not think it is a celebration time. We only want to bring everybody back on board and face the future elections.
There were perceptions that those celebrating Abure’s court victory on social media were APC supporters who didn’t want to see Peter Obi and Alex Otti take control of the party. How will you react to that?
I don’t know the barometer you used to gauge who celebrated and who didn’t celebrate the Labour Party’s victory. Unless you tell me the criteria, we didn’t see it that way. We didn’t even notice any celebration. What we saw were newspapers and online media reporting stories related to the outcome of the case in court. I didn’t see anyone jumping up and down. So, I’m not aware of the celebration. For us in the party, we just took it as something that came to help us to stabilise the party. As I told you earlier, there is no pumping the air until we make sure that everyone who should be with us is back. The celebration can then come after we have won the major election.
Are you willing to work with the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee and other aggrieved members of the party factions?
I mentioned earlier that we won’t pump the air until everybody comes back and we face the elections ahead collectively. There was never a faction ab initio. What we had was some members coming to play games and laying claims to things that were not true. In the eye of the law, there has never been a faction and the party has been together. But when people lay claims, if you don’t stand strong, the wind may blow you out. That was exactly what happened. The Labour Party has never faced what you called factions at all. The so-called factions were the creation of the media. The moment our former chairman, Abdulsalaam (may his soul rest in peace) died, a succession emerged and it continued until we went for a convention as provided by the law. The convention produced a set of new leadership. So there has never been a faction anywhere. That’s my take on that.
Can you confidently say LP is ready for the 2027 general election?
I have just told you that we have good plans in place. We have put processes and good programmes in place. However, you cannot begin to talk about aspirants, if that is what you mean when the Independent National Electoral Commission has not given the modalities for the election. The political party is not all about the election. There are so many other things involved and this is what we are doing. When it’s time for the election, we will advertise after we get permission from the INEC and interested people will indicate their interest. That is how it is done. They don’t jump the gun.
Are there lessons you learned from the 2023 election that could help LP sweep the 2027 poll?
We have never got it wrong. In 2023, we got it right. However, there are lessons to learn, because we didn’t think of the gravity of our opponent going as far as hijacking ballot boxes, creating result sheets and all those vices. These are things we are working on now. Remember that shortly after the election, the party met and agreed on certain things, conducting a sort of post-mortem, which we also made public. We have taken note of everything, and we are going to guard against them. We actually took it for granted that the electoral body would do the right thing. Probably, the INEC was overwhelmed. This was not just us saying it. The international community, everybody, came up and said the same thing. So we have taken note of all those things and will ensure that the votes of Nigerians count in 2027.
How is your relationship with INEC at the moment?
INEC is not a political party. It is an organisation, a commission that regulates political parties. We have a cordial relationship with the body. Whatever things are extended to other political parties are also extended to the Labour Party. So we are good.
Your supporters accused INEC of failing Nigerians following the 2023 election outcome. Are you comfortable going into the 2027 election, knowing that the same electoral body will be in charge?
We all saw what happened in 2023. Every Nigerian rose and condemned some of the outcomes and INEC management of the election. We want to believe that the institution must have taken corrections and tried to give the capacity to ensure that what happened in 2023 doesn’t happen again. I am aware that the National Assembly is currently working on the Electoral Act to make sure some of the mistakes in 2023 are not repeated. I am also aware that the current headship of INEC may not likely be reappointed, having served his maximum two terms. So we will be more worried about who will take over from him to do the right thing. Nigerians will definitely hold the person accountable, especially now that they are well-informed. Many people are learned and computer savvy. They will ensure the commission follows the trend and do the right thing at the right time.
Has there been any progress on your frosty relationship with the NLC?
Let us make this issue very clear. It has always been our position and it has never changed. The NLC as a body helped in founding the Labour Party. That is where their powers end, according to the rules guiding political parties in Nigeria. This is because political parties are owned by Nigerians and not the personal possession of any private body. A political party is answerable to Nigeria and not a group of persons or a union. So the Labour Party is not answerable to the NLC. The laws are there for all to see. The constitution is also very clear about that. If they choose to play a major role in the party, they should do the right thing by first asking their members to register.
As I told you earlier, there is an ongoing membership registration. They can take the opportunity to register overwhelmingly and own the party from the ward. If they fail to do that, I don’t know who they will blame. That has been the problem. The constitution, however, stated that no organisation should own another organisation. So the Labour Party is a corporate body that can sue or be sued just like the NLC. It is even against the law for the leadership of NLC to involve themselves in politics because as a union for workers’ welfare, they are not even meant to be active in politics. As individuals, they can. But as a body, they are forbidden by the law. The role of the NLC political commission has also been clearly stated. It is about your membership not seeking to take over the control of a political party.
As responsible leaders of the Labour Party, we decided not to fight back. We chose not to go into the streets in the same manner they did when they came to picket the party a few years back. We decided to stick to the proposition of the law and it has been interpreted. I think they have recognized their boundaries and rested.
