The leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) yesterday deepened further as the Political Commission of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) including some party stakeholders called for a fresh national convention.
This development followed heightened internal conflicts within the party and the NLC’s renewed commitment to reclaim the party control from the national chairman, Barrister Julius Abure over his role in a divisive national convention.
At the end of the party’s stakeholder meeting in Abuja yesterday attended by notable party figures including the Labour Party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Comrade Sylvester Ejiofor, former NLC president, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar and the chairman of the NLC Political Commission, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, they agreed to constitute a Transition Committee led by the NLC Political Commission to create party structures at all levels and prepare for an all-inclusive and expansive national convention within three months.
They also dismissed the outcomes of the national convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State, and disregarded the leadership that emerged from it.
The communique which was issued at the end of the meeting reads in part, “The stakeholders meeting noted the vacuum in the leadership of the Labour Party following the expiration of the supposed tenure of the immediate past National Working Committee of the Labour Party.
“The stakeholders’ meeting affirmed and validated the intervention of the Nigeria Labour Congress through her Political Commission as the only body recognised by the Constitution of the Labour Party and Justice Kolawole’s Consent Judgement to act as trustee in a situation of leadership vacuum as is currently the case in the Labour Party.
“The meeting followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved to accept the recommendations made in the address by the NLC Political Commission chairman resolved that in order to reposition the Labour Party from a mere platform for contesting elections to a viable political vehicle for the emancipation of Nigerian workers and people the following steps must be taken immediately”.
Other key decisions reached at the end of the meeting yesterday include move to inform the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security organisations to recognise the Transition Committee as the interim leadership until a national convention is held. The stakeholders also tasked the Transition Committee with taking over Labour Party secretariats nationwide and initiating an asset recovery process.
They also mandated the committee to begin the revalidation of current members and registration of new ones for the upcoming national convention with expectations to mobilise for a membership strength of 10 million and to conduct an audit against alleged fraud in the party.
Earlier, Ndubuaku lamented that the party had been reduced to a mere instrument for contesting elections, which has lost sight of its core values and principles.
He said that there was a need to realign the party’s leadership with the ideals of social democracy, moral rectitude and financial probity.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has made a clarion call for reconciliation within the party.
Obi who was represented at the event by Labour Party’s presidential campaign council spokesperson, Yunusa Tanko called for the establishment of committees to resolve legal disputes and extend the reconciliation process to all political stakeholders.
He said, “His Excellency said I should say here that he’s calling for peace and peaceful resolution of all contending issues. It is only when you have peace that you can be able to even vie for any position whatsoever. So, without a peaceful reconciliation, we will continue to wallow in this particular challenges up and down”.
