Victor EzejaChief spokesperson for the Obi-Datti campaign organisation, Dr Yinusa Tanko, has dismissed permutations that the current crisis within the Labour Party would affect Peter Obi’s chances in 2027 presidential election.
Tanko, who appeared on Channels Television Morning Brief on Monday, said Obi is a brand of his own and remains unfazed by an internal wrangling in the party.
The party which gained popularity and large followers during the 2023 general when Obi joined and got the presidential and subsequently polled over six million votes, has in recent times been enmeshed in a controversy as different stakeholders including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), opposed the leadership of Julius Abure as the national chairman.
Before the party’s national convention that was held last week in Nnewi, Anambra State, where Abure was reelected as national chairman, the NLC had called for Abure’s resignation as party chairman and the immediate constitution of a caretaker transition committee to organise a legitimate and all-inclusive national convention for the party.
However, Abure insisted and went ahead with the exercise which returned him as the national chairman and some other members of the party’s national working committee.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had also said none of its officials monitored the convention, while the party’s Board of Trustees insisted that Abure’s tenure had expired.
Tanko said Obi is such a personality that can move with his supporters to any platform to advance his interest and they are ready to follow him because they believe in his capacity to take the country out of the woods.
He disclosed that Obi had advised Abure about having an all-inclusive convention but he (Abure) dismissed it.
He asserted that the crisis could have been prevented if the right thing had been done.
He said, “His Excellency, Peter Obi, made concerted efforts in trying to intervene at any point we have this particular issue and trying to improve.
“When the issue of the national convention came up, he (Obi) suggested to the national chairman that, because we are bigger now, we need to have a wider consultation:
“We need to meet with responsible and interested people such as the TUC and NLC, stakeholders, the Obidient group – young generation people who are interested in seeing Nigeria work. Meet with leaders who have different ideas that can midwife us to a greater height.
“All of these were the suggestions that he (Obi) made. And not only did he make those suggestions, he practicalised them because he met with the members of the National Assembly.
“Obi met with the leadership of the party recently in Asaba trying to give them ideas on how he thinks certain things could be done and you could improve our situation.
“But of course, you know how politics is. Sometimes, people may be trying to encourage people, but they do something different.
“You can only take a horse to the river, but you cannot force it to drink water. So that’s exactly what Peter Obi has done. He has done so greatly to see if we can find a solution to some of the problems we find ourselves in,” he said.
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Tanko maintained that the national convention was not all-inclusive, adding that it could have been a bigger one if the right thing was done.
He noted that the true owners of the Labour Party are the NLC and the TUC who are in every ward and local government. He further disclosed that there was an agreement signed by former NLC president Ayuba Waba and even Abure which said that there will be a unity convention that would start from the ward level, local government, state and dovetail to the national convention but that was not followed by the Abure leadership.
“However, they (Abure’s leadership) decided to have a convention that is more or less a close convention not an expanded convention which the majority of the members are clamouring for. That is where the problem started,” Tanko stated.
READ ALSO: NLC Members Storm Labour Party Secretariat, Demand Abure’s Sack
He insisted that the agreement must be honoured and the convention done in that pattern for the Labour Party to be great as a political party that everybody expected.
He said Abure has a right to contest the national chairmanship position but due process as stipulated in the party’s constitution should be followed.
He therefore called for a national convention that would carry everybody in the party along.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
