Labour Party's Division Stemming From The Battle For 2027

Julius Abure

Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress's political commission and a few congressmen picketed the Labour Party's (LP) headquarters on Wednesday of last week, demanding that the labour movement seize control of the organization and that Mr. Julius Abure, its national chairman, resign.

However, the fight for the party's 2027 presidential ticket has been linked to the development, which already poses a threat to the party's very survival.

According to party insiders, the struggle for the party's 2027 presidential ticket was the impetus for the decision to defy the leadership. The sources claim that party leaders are sharply divided over who will select the 2027 presidential ticket.

In addition, there is the notion that Abure has already agreed to support Mr. Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State, even if some party members are reportedly thinking about ways to field a different candidate.

It was discovered that the situation is caused by two problems. According to one source, while some people thought that the South should still have the opportunity to choose the president in 2027 and that the party's chairmanship should be immediately transferred to the North, other leaders thought Abure could still hold the position and be instructed to step down as soon as a candidate from the South wins.

However, some in the party were rumored to be against Abure holding the chairperson position until 2027 because they thought the guy may become reticent when the time came.

It was discovered that certain labor movement members were working behind the scenes to prevent Peter Obi from being the party's 2027 presidential nominee while also covertly endorsing the Lamidi Apampa group's takeover plan. Various reports claim that the goal was to make room for a second southern-originated candidate in 2027.

According to a source, the aforementioned factors have combined to make things uncomfortable within the Labour Party, and some establishment employees are also involved in the effort to remove Abure.

“The division among leaders of the labour movement is behind the crisis in the Labour Party. You can see when it erupted with the Apampa issue when he instituted a fight to kill Peter Obi's ambition. That crack is widening and it is already defining the state of the party ahead of 2027.

As the source put it, “some people have decided to start the 2027 battle very early and that is why they want to take over the party even when the constitution is very clear.” The source also added that the tensions should have subsided following the recent Court of Appeal decision upholding Abure's chairmanship.

In an interview, LP's National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Obiora Ifoh, declared that the NLC's attack on the party's headquarters was unlawful and that the Abure leadership was abiding by the law at all times.

He said that the scheduled national convention was in accordance with the NEC's timeline, stating that the party's National Executive Committee had granted the Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) a one-year extension in 2023 to hold new elections.

“Some persons have said that the national convention should start from the grassroots. However, the tenure of the NWC and that of the state chapters are not the same. The constitution provides for three years at the sub-national level and four years at the national level. So the elections cannot fall within the same time. By the mandate of NEC, the party has to put in place its NWC through the national convention and then take a look at the situation in the states,” the spokesman stated, adding that the national chairman had done nothing wrong in organizing the convention.

Additionally, he refuted rumors that Abure was attempting to maintain his position as national chairman, claiming that if he ran for office at the upcoming convention, the chairman would be doing so for the first time.

The party spokeswoman stated that Abure “would be contesting the chairmanship of the party if he seeks election in the planned convention.” He continued by saying that Abure was appointed chairman to serve out the remaining months of the term of the outgoing chairman, Abdulsalam Abdulkadir, who passed away in December 2020, and that the NEC had approved a one-year extension for the NWC in 2023 in order to give the party time to resolve the then-raging crisis. “Now the party is doing everything possible to organise the national convention before the expiration of the one-year timeline given by the NEC,” he stated.

The Senate investigation is expected to uncover a much more extensive swindle because the majority of the North's benefits come from the contentious policies of the 9th Senate and the Buhari administration.