Will Caretaker Balm Soothen Labour Party’s Pains?

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo writes about the crisis rocking the national leadership of the Labour Party and asks if the recently constituted Caretaker Committee will be in a position to chart a way forward for the party.

How will the Labour Party(LP) be saved from the implosion staring the party in the face following a leadership crisis that erupted after 2023 general election? That was the question that the stakeholders came to answer on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 when they gathered at Umuahia, the Abia State capital to deliberate on the turmoil in the party. So, for the participants at the NEC/expanded stakeholders meeting, the agenda was lucid enough: how to salvage Labour Party.

Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, who was the convener and host of the meeting said  those of them that were worried about the way Labour Party was drifting needed to intervene. He justified the convening of the meeting using an Igbo adage which says “an elderly person cannot standby and watch a goat give birth while in tether”. The Abia governor said since he joined Labour Party in May, 2022, “there have always been one problem or the other, and every time I intervened it was to solve problem”.

The cause of the nagging pain in the party was the expiration of the term of office of the party’s National Chairman, Comrade Julius Abure and members of the National Working Committee (NWC). The term of the NWC was said to have ended on June 10, 2023 and there was need to hold a convention to choose new leaders or renew the mandate of NWC. The expected convention did not  happen hence LP was technically swirling in leadership vacuum even though Abure was still clinging to power.

However, in March, 2024, the Abure-led SWC went to Owerri, the Imo State capital and held a national convention where he was returned as National Chairman of Labour Party. Not a few stakeholders and interest groups raised eye brows and kicked against the convention, citing its non-inclusiveness and faulty process.

The most referenced anomaly was that the convention was not preceded by congresses at the ward, local government and state levels where delegates for national convention would have been elected. Abure was undaunted and remained adamant fending off every opposition and dissenting voices.

In his defence, the embattled LP Chairman insisted that both the convention and the renewal of his mandate followed due process. He claimed that both Governor Otti and the presidential candidate of LP in 2023 poll, Mr. Peter Obi were quite in the know and backed the convention and its outcome. Abure pointed out that delegates from Abia led by the Deputy Governor of the State, Ikechukwu Emetu had participated in the convention.

Even at that, Otti has now revealed that he was never quite comfortable with the convention, despite that Abia was represented. “I (had) questioned the composition of delegates and hasn’t gotten an answer,” he said. Based on the unanswered question on how the delegates emerged, Otti concluded that “it means that things were not done right (hence) let us not move sheepishly into a hole we know exists”.

Perhaps, the LP stakeholders would have let Abure enjoy his purportedly renewed term had the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not taken a firm stand against him. The regulatory body totally disowned the said LP convention in Owerri, insisting that it didn’t know about it and so didn’t monitor it. Abure hotly disputed this claim and even alluded that it was not legally binding that INEC must supervise the election of party leaders.

But INEC stuck to its gun by refusing to recognise Abure as the National Chairman of Labour Party. The regulatory body has not invited him to any of its meetings with chairmen of political parties. Abure was even humiliated on one occasion he attended such meetings uninvited and was walked out by INEC officials.

Abure’s pariah status became a source of concern to stakeholders of his party. According to Otti, the Abure-led NWC ceased to be recognised by INEC since June 10, 2023, adding that “the implication is that from then our party does not have leadership”. He alluded that Abure’s obstinacy would lead him no where because “if by effusion of time your leadership has been rendered impotent, then you do not exist”. The Abia Governor also gave Abure a food for thought. He said: “You can claim leadership of the party but once owners come together and they don’t agree with you, you are gone”.

And so Abure was blown away together with the NWC at the end of the expanded stakeholders meeting. In what Senator Victor Umeh described as “doctrine of necessity” a 29-member Catetaker Committee was set up to run the affairs of Labour Party for the next 90 days. A former Finance Minister, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman,  was appointed the Chairman of the Committee while Hon Darlington Nwokocha was made the Secretary.

The stakeholders at the Umuahia meeting, in the course of their deliberations, unanimously agreed that the tenure of the Abure-led NWC ended on June 10, 2023. “There is need to ensure that there is no vacuum in the NWC of the party,” they said in a five-point commnique read by Hon Edward Pwajok, LP’s deputy gubernatorial flag bearer in Plateau State during the 2023 poll.

The stakeholders said they ensured that the  composition of the Caretaker Commitee membership reflected the “various interests and tendencies” in the LP.  This meant that members were drawn from the  Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Senate Caucus of LP, House of Representatives Caucus, House of Assembly and gubernatorial candidates of the party in the 2023 election.

The caretaker Committee was given a marching order “to immediately ensure that the Ward, Local Government, State, and national congresses and conventions of the Labour Party are held as soon as possible in accordance with the constitution of the Labour Party”. The party faithful were enjoined by the bigwigs “to support the Caretaker Committee to achieve its mandate”.

But that advise may not be heeded by all LP members. The Abure-led NWC has kicked against its sacking and the emergence of a Caretaker Committee. In a swift reaction, the publicity secretary in the dissolved NWC, Mr. Obiora Ifoh dismissed the Umuahia meeting and its outcome, describing it as “a charade, a waste of time and resources of Abia people”. He stated the the Abia Governor “and others who converged on Umuahia have no power within the party’s constitution, the Electoral Act and even within the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to convene any meeting of the party”.

Ifoh contended that the premise on which Otti convened the meeting “is not only faulty but mischievous”. According to him, there is no document to support the claim that INEC has rejected Abure-led NWC. The spokesman of the Abure group noted that “government business is not transacted verbally but through official communication and correspondences which are done in writing”. He insisted that presently “there is no communication whatsoever from INEC to the Party as regards any objection to the conduct of the National Convention”. Ifoh made a caricature of the Senator Usman-led Caretaker Committee, saying that its existence “is not known to the constitution of the party and can best be described as a department in the Abia State Government House”.

While maintaining that “there is no vacuum in the leadership of the party” the Abure group also questioned the membership status of Senator Usman, the Caretaker Commitee Chairman. “We are shocked to note that the so-called chairman of the caretaker committee is not a registered member of the party. She surfaced during the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign to assist Peter Obi in his campaign”, Ifoh said.

Other members of the dissolved LP NWC have also spoken against the outcome of the meeting in Umuahia. The Deputy National Chairman, Ayo Olorunfemi, reportedly said on Arise TV that the Umuahia meeting has unmasked those “fueling the crisis” in LP. 

He specifically 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 vowed that “we are going to deal with this via our rule”. He reminded party members that “the constitution is supreme (therefore) no matter who you are, you are not greater than the party”.

Interestingly, the National Vice-chairman of LP, South-East, Ceekay Igara, who is considered a close ally of Governor Otti also joined in kicking against the meeting he  hosted, saying “it is like a drama”. Igara, who is the immediate past state chairman of LP in Abia, expressed his misgivings on a radio programme, ‘Open Parliament’ monitored in Umuahia. He said the Umuahia 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, Igara argued that if Nigeria is indeed a democratic country guided by laws and guidelines”, the outcome of the meeting in Umuahia “cannot stand”. According to him, the removal of Abure and NWC members holds no water, saying “it is only a convention organised for that purpose that can remove the national chairman” of the party.

Though the September 4, 2024 gathering in Umuahia was tagged NEC/Extended stakeholders meeting, it turned out to be more of stakeholders affair. Governor Otti and his deputy, Emetu were the only NEC members at the meeting. Others either boycotted it or were outrightly not invited.

In fact, Igara said he was not invited, and possibly the same thing applied to other members of the dissenting NWC.

No matter how hard Abure and his group might want to stretch the issue of their displacement, there appears to be no possibility the “party owners” would reverse their decision. Senator Umeh hinted that there was no way Abure could have been allowed to continue in office at the expiration of his tenure given the consequential collateral damage to the Labour Party.

The Anambra West Senator, who has garnered experience in party administration as a former National Chairman of APGA, said Abure was endangering the interest and right of LP members. He said: “We cannot be building on quick sand where our efforts will sink.

Umeh made it clear that “nobody is against anybody”. However, ”it doesn’t matter your relationship with anybody, once what you are doing is not right, you will be endangering everybody’s interest and right. Now that INEC has wielded the big stick as a regulatory body, I knew we ran into a stormy water”.

Despite Abure’s posturing, Umeh said INEC has already delivered the killer punch. He pointed out that ”for your (party) Chairman to attend a meeting and he will be asked to leave, that shows you are not part of the system any more”. So, the stakeholders have acted decidedly to stop Abure from dragging the entire party into the bottomless pit.

With Abure and his group still constituting a kind of resistant movement in the Labour Party, there is still apprehension in the party that the crisis could still linger. It would be seen if the setting up of a Caretaker Committee would be a soothing balm on frayed nerves, or if it would end up exacerbating a raging inferno.

But the national leader of the party, Mr Peter Obi, has appealed for peace and understanding among Labour Party members to enable the party weather the storm.

In his speech at the NEC/Extended Stakeholders meeting, which he chaired, Obi harped on the need for members to sacrifice for the good of the party, even at personal costs. He cited himself as example, saying because of “my own position” in the crisis rocking the party, “I have been called all sorts of names”. yet he has remained steadfast in pursuing party interests. “In going forward, let everybody learn to sacrifice for the party,” Obi advised his fellow Labour Party members.