ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS examines the disagreement between the Nigeria Labour Congress and Labour Party over who owns the political party among the duo
When the Nigeria Labour Congress signified that they were out to remove the Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure, from office penultimate Friday, not many took it seriously. It took a nationwide siege on all the party secretariats four days later for the message to sink home.
In an open letter signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission, Titus Amba and Chris Uyot respectively, Abure and the NWC were accused of proposing a “secret” national convention in Umuahia, the Abia State capital on March 27 that will re-elect the embattled chairman to continue running the LP as ‘sole administrator’.
Describing the planned convention as illegal, the political wing of the NLC 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.
Among other things, the unionists also alleged that Abure had in April 2023 tried to extend his tenure in office unilaterally by two years but was stopped at the instance of the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who insisted that the right thing be done.
The drama came at the height of the leadership crisis that had seen the Abure’s camp battle for legitimacy against the Lamidi Apapa faction of the party. Expectedly, the leadership of the LP fought back to dismiss the allegations of the NLC in a statement on Saturday.
The National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, had sounded it as a note of warning in a statement titled ‘Resign as NLC President to contest LP chairmanship,’ that the party’s leadership does not feel obligated to follow the directives of the unionists.
LP secretariats’ invasion
The bravado only lasted four days as the congress called the bluff of the LP and mobilised its members to picket the national headquarters in Abuja last Wednesday.
Brandishing different banners and chanting solidarity songs, the protesters insisted that Abure must be kicked out over his alleged financial rascality and contempt of their president, Joe Ajaero. They were however prevented from gaining access to the party secretariat by security operatives posted to the area to maintain order.
In the wake of the disruption of activities, the National Working Committee of the Labour Party faulted the action of the NLC, describing it as an abuse of power.
A disappointed National Youth Leader, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, had expressed disappointment in the manner the union handled the situation. According to him, it is wrong for a movement that symbolises the struggle of the masses to picket secretariats of a political party.
The NWC member accuses Ajaero of being openly partisan in his approach to allegedly hijacking the party to further his “political ambition”.
But this was not the first time Ajaero would be accused of being partisan and abusing his office by using the machinery of the congress to fight perceived political enemies.
Ajaero’s Imo misadventure
On November 1, 2023, the NLC president survived a mob attack in faraway Imo State where he was eventually whisked to an unknown destination by some policemen. His crime was not immediately known as his loyalists and other members of organised labour threatened mayhem if the police and Governor Hope Uzodimma failed to produce him.
Addressing a world press conference in Abuja, the labour leader gave an account of how he was brutalised in the state, saying police operatives handed him over to some suspected thugs for beating. Ajaero told journalists that the kind of beating he received after security agents handed him over to the thugs was better imagined than explained.
While denying that he travelled to Imo with an ulterior motive to mobilise the people against Uzodimma as being speculated, the NLC boss claimed that they wrote to intimate security agencies about workers’ protest before the fateful day.
“I went to the (NLC) secretariat around 9am after receiving reports that some workers were beaten up and their phones seized. I went there with about 20 security personnel. I called for some journalists and other workers to address the press on the situation in Imo State. It was then that some police officers in uniform and mufti came and withdrew my 20 security personnel. A policeman also arrested me and handed me over to the thugs.
“When a sergeant wanted to know why I was being handed over, they shouted at him to keep quiet. They were asking me why I was challenging a governor and that I should say my last prayer. I can’t explain the beating I received. They tied my hands and dragged me on the floor like a common criminal. I am not even a card-carrying member of any political party as alleged,” he cried.
His account, however, contradicted an earlier statement by the Imo State Police Command, which said the NLC President was taken into protective custody to save him from a mob attack. The statement was issued on the official X handle of the Nigerian Police by Imo Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Okoye Henry.
Party chieftains seek ceasefire
Reacting to Wednesday’s picketing of their party secretariats, the chief spokesman for the LP Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, called for caution, saying the baby should not be thrown away with the bath water. According to him, there was an ongoing effort at a stakeholders’ meeting in Asaba, the Delta State capital, to resolve the cold war between the NLC and the party leadership.
In a related development, the leader of the National Consultative Front, Pat Utomi, a frontline stakeholder caucus in the LP, also called for an end to the hostility. Utomi, who said he had been following the drama surrounding the projected LP convention, sought contributions from labour stakeholders.
The professor of Political Economy and management expert made the call in a statement on Wednesday, warning that such a crisis could not be ruled out at a period when the party emerged as the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics. According to him, the only way to shame the critics who wanted to see the LP crumble was for all contending forces, including factions, to sheathe their swords and allow peace to prevail in the party.
He also demanded that the proposed national convention be halted to give room for due consultations to ensure inclusivity in the affairs of the party for future strength and triumph.
Apapa faction backs Abure
The drama, however, took a different dimension when a dissident group, the Lamidi Apapa faction threw its weight behind the embattled Abure of the party.
While condemning the invasion of their party secretariat, spokesman for the faction, Abayomi Arabambi, called for the immediate arrest of Ajaero for allegedly planning a “political insurrection against the Federal Government through a conduct that is likely to cause a breach of peace with his call on students, market women and leaders, thugs, and other miscreants to invade the 36 states chapter of Labour Party offices.”
Arabambi made the call at a press conference on Wednesday in Abeokuta, Ogun State. According to him, the call for picketing, subsequent invasion, and destruction of the LP national office by the NLC was illegal, archaic, and not in tandem with modern democracy.
‘No retreat, no surrender’
In an exclusive interview, the NLC spokesman, Benson Upah, told our Saturday PUNCH that the Edo politician was a product of a coup and had breached many protocols over the years.
He said, “Abure ceased to be the LP national chairman a long time ago. We repeatedly invited him to no avail. We heard he was planning a convention, and he didn’t even mention to the leadership of the congress that he was planning any convention. That’s to tell you the kind of person he is.
“The NLC wants its party back and Abure has ceased to be the national chairman. The owners want their property back. Where was Abure when they were registering the party? When the then national chairman, (Abdulkadir) Abdulsalam, died, the next person in succession by the provision of the party constitution was Maria Lebake or any of his deputies, what was Abure’s position in the party then? He was just the national secretary.”
Upah’s position was shared by the Edo chapter of NLC, which equally accused the LP national chairman of running the LP as a personal business. The Edo team led by its vice chairman, Suleiman Abubakar, made the claim while picketing the party’s annex in Benin in compliance with the national directive from the congress.
Abubakar reiterated that Abure was out of order for not carrying the NLC along in decision-making despite knowing that the party belongs to the union.
Experts react
Meanwhile, the show of force between the NLC and the beleaguered political party has started eliciting mixed feelings from political observers.
Human rights lawyer, Ebun Adegboruwa, blamed the LP for not carrying what he called its parent body along in crucial matters. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria also faulted the NLC for resorting to picketing instead of finding the right channel to deal with the issue.
He said, “I think the Labour Party which is existent to Labour and Civil Societies Organisations has been a product of a long campaign for workers to be involved in the exercise of their fundamental rights to freedom of association. It is rightly believed that any politician who wants to play on the platform of such an organisation must have at the back of his mind the genesis and philosophy of such an entity. To that extent, it cannot be said that the NLC is trying to hijack the Labour Party, the latter being its baby and the outcome of its agitation.
“It is the party that should find a way towards reconciling with its parent body, being that a baby can be greater than its parent. In that regard, I believe that the current leaders of the LP are in error to the extent that they do not wish to countenance the involvement of the parent body. That is on one side. The other part is that the parent body, having given birth to the baby, must allow it to exist. The structure that has been laid for the party for the emergence of national officers and candidates must be respected.
“But if the parent body has an issue, it must follow its procedure to take over the organisation, not through picketing. Some laws guard the LP. It has its constitution, and that document must be followed if there is a need to change the executives to bring it in conformity with the original ideal and philosophy of its parent body. However, the NLC cannot take laws into its own hands by hijacking the structure of the party. It has to go through the procedure set up by the constitution.”
A political analyst at the University of Ilorin, Dr Alada Mohammed, expressed sympathy for the LP, saying it perhaps believes every member of the NLC shares the same ideology with their party. While stressing that an internal crisis is expected in any party, the expert noted that Abure and his NWC forgot that they would be a target of opposing parties following its giant strides at the 2023 general elections.
“It should be expected that in a democracy, people tend to use what they have to get what they need. The NLC, in my view, is being coerced to serve the interest of a political party. The fact that they are bearing one name does not mean they are one body. But at times when you are blinded by power, you tend to misconstrue the meaning and may want to use the machinery of a non-political association, so to say, to pursue a political ambition. Of course, when you try to do that, you may likely run into trouble.
“Again, if you are trying to constitute a political platform, it is expected that the party you are opposing will not go to sleep. It will want to use every means to destabilise you, even if it means penetrating your wing and using people or machinery from within. I think that is exactly what is playing out here. I hope you know that even NLC members belong to different parties.
“So, you just find yourself floating at the end of the day because the members you have don’t share the same political ideology. It is a wrong assumption to believe that because you have a body, therefore, it must share the same ideology with you. No, it doesn’t work that way. We all have different interests and ideologies,” he stated.
Another political scientist from Lagos State University, Prof Sylvester Akhaine, also shared his sentiment when he stated that ‘the tussle is essentially about control.’
He said, “The labour party is a product of NLC and TUC. But the control is in the hands of those who are ideologically at variance with labour values. Elements who want to constrict the political space can hijack the dissension to undermine the party that has recently emerged as a third force.”
It is hard to tell if the NLC may be willing to go as far as throwing the bath water away with its supposed ‘baby’ or allow its anger to subside while stakeholders create an enabling environment for a thorough negotiation.
But while the drama lasts, it is uncertain whether the presidential candidate of the LP, Peter Obi, whose deafening silence has got many of his ‘Obidient’ supporters worried, would be willing to mediate between the two warring camps.