Ahead 2027, LP charts new course as stakeholders unite, seek new leadership, appoint caretaker Chairperson, Secretary

The highly anticipated Labour Party expanded stakeholders meeting, which was held in Umuahia, the capital of Abia state, yesterday (Wednesday, September 4) rose with the stakeholders upholding the Abdulwahed Omar-led National Transition Committee (NTC) as the authentic leadership of the party as the tenure and National Executive Council of Julius Abure had since expired in June this year.

Led by the only Governor of the party, Governor Alex Otti of Abia state, and Mr. Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, other stakeholders included elected national and state lawmakers throughout the country.

Also in attendance were members of the Board of Trustees of the Labour Party recognized by the NLC consent judgment of March 20, 2018, leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission and its frontline constitutional compliance advocacy organ, the Labour Party National Transition Committee (NTC) which has led the party’s struggle for a new leadership following the expiration of the Abure-led NEC in June this year.

Welcoming the stakeholders to the meeting, Governor Alex Otti opened the event with a rousing background on the rationale for the meeting, stating that stakeholders must not allow the Labour Party to die as it is, according to him, the only hope to redeem Nigeria from its present dire governance challenges.

Otti assured the attendees that neither he nor Mr. Peter Obi would leave the Labour Party for another party any time soon, emphasizing that they are not going anywhere outside the Labour Party because, according to him, if they leave the Labour Party because it has crises, there is no guarantee that where anyone is leaving to is not worse.

“Anyone doing so would be deceiving himself,” Otti asserted.

Buttressing the NTC case and advocacy of several months, Governor Otti said he had carefully studied Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s consent judgment of 2018 and its requirement for the conduct of an all-inclusive national convention within one year of the judgment.

He added that he was also conversant with the subsequent INEC-brokered terms of settlement signed by Abure with the NLC as an institutional stakeholder of the party, which Julius Abure and his NEC consistently defied until they went to the Nnewi convention, which was boycotted by INEC.

Otti cited the two occasions where INEC expelled Abure from its meetings some weeks ago and concluded that the consequences of those actions were clear indications that the party was in danger of having no recognized lawful leadership in the electoral commission’s records.

This, according to the Governor, left a vacuum that needed to be filled urgently, hence, the expanded stakeholders’ meeting had to be convened.

According to Otti, if the Labour Party under Abure had fielded or participated in any inter-party election after Abure’s tenure expired in June this year, all candidates of the party would have suffered the fate of court annulment in favor of opposition parties similar to the precedents of Zamfara and Plateau states.

This, the governor said, was what the NTC, inaugurated by the NLC Political Commission under Comrade Abdulwahed Omar’s chairmanship, had been raising alarm about and advocating against for several months.

Also speaking at the event, Sen. Victor Umeh, representing Anambra Central Senatorial District at the Green Chamber of the National Assembly, expressed Governor Otti’s sentiments, explaining that early in the year, he had painstakingly studied the NLC consent judgment of 2018 and advised the Julius Abure group against the Nnewi convention, but his advice was unheeded.

However, in his response to the Umuahia stakeholders meeting, Abure rejected the resolutions arrived at the meeting, including the announcement of former minister Sen. Esther Nenadi Usman as chairman and Sen. Darlington Nwokeocha as secretary of the party’s new caretaker committee respectively.

But in their own rsponses, the leadership of the NLC

Political Commission, headed by its Acting Chairman, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, and the Commission’s National Transition Committee, headed by the ex-NLC President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, made some clarifications during an interactive session with the press.

Said Prof. Ndubuaku: “Yesterday in Umuahia, the whole world, elected and status leaders of our Labour Party, from their Excellencies Peter Obi and Dr. Alex Otti to members of the Senate and House of Reps, including governorship aspirants from the six geopolitical zones, publicly recognized and embraced what the NTC led by Comrade Abdulwahed Omar had been saying on the rooftops since April this year:

Abure’s tenure ended on June 9, 2024. This is our first collective victory and a major triumph for the Labour Party nationwide.

“Today, therefore, marks a new beginning and chapter for the Labour Party nationwide.”

On the formation of a national caretaker committee for the party, Prof. Ndubuaku said: “You will recall that only the chairman and its secretary have been proposed and announced.

“It is a struggle we started from the beginning to today, absolutely with our resources and virtually without help from our elected and relevant leaders of the political class in the Labour Party. At the minimum, we ought to be acknowledged and consulted in the formation and appointment of the caretaker committee’s members, especially such critical officers as the chairman and secretary. We were not.

“Even though not consulted, as I stated,” Prof. Ndubuaku went on, “the NLC Political Commission and its NTC committee believe that the Peter Obi and Alex Otti-led organizers are reasonable leaders who desire the unity, harmony, and rancour-free cohesion of the party going forward.

“We are, therefore, optimistic that this time they will seek the NLC Political Commission’s and TUC’s opinion, give us our rightful say in the ratification of the chairmanship and secretary appointments they have announced, as well as the composition of the remaining proposed 27-member strength of the committee.”

“We also believe that if there is a need to expand the proposed National Caretaker Committee beyond their present proposed 29-member mark, they will do so,” Ndubuaku added. “That will demonstrate that they are listening leaders who understand that every stakeholder, especially critical blocs like the NLC, TUC, and other entities of our party, should be carried along to have a sense of belonging for our overall membership growth, national expansion, and progress.”

In the above light, it is imperative for the incoming National Caretaker Committee or transition NWC, if I may use the expression, to consciously accommodate in the coming days the legitimate wish list of the NLC Political Commission and its NTC committee, which have been at work since April.”

Making further clarifications, Prof. Ndubuaku confirmed that INEC was not present at the Umuahia expanded stakeholders meeting to witness and enroll the resolutions announced in their books and portals to make them legally final.

“That is why only two officers, the chairman and secretary, were announced. The remaining 27 members or more shall be listed hereafter and subjected to harmony-promoting consultations before they are announced and inaugurated with time.

“In conclusion, the Labour Party is on course for better and brighter days,” Prof. Ndubuaku surmised.

At press time, it was learned that the NLC Political Commission is in discussion to re-name, retain, and sustain the Labour Party National Transition Committee (NTC) as an organ of strategic conflict management, engagement and resolution, policy study, and programme development of the NLC.