In this interview with SUNDAY NWAKANMA, the Chairman of the Abia State chapter of the Labour Party, Emmanuel Otti, insists that Governor Alex Otti is still in the LP and remains the leader of the party, debunking rumours that the governor worked against the party in the last council poll. Excerpts:
Against the norm, the ruling party in Abia State, the Labour Party, failed to win a single seat in the recently held LG poll in the state. Governor Otti said he asked his supporters to vote for any candidate they believed would deliver good governance. As the state chairman of the party, how do you feel about this?
First, let me correct an impression. Dr Alex Otti, the Governor of Abia State, did not and cannot authorise his supporters (to contest under a different party), knowing that he is a member of the Labour Party, and he is the governor of Abia State and a leader of the LP in Abia State and Nigeria. Therefore, he cannot and would not authorise or mandate his supporters to go to another party, either to promote or to contest. Rather, he said that the electorate should vote for any candidate of their choice, who they believe can deliver, and which they have the constitutional right to do. Otti voted for a candidate of his choice in the election, and he knows the person he voted for will deliver. I, as state LP chairman, voted for candidates of my choice. This is just like in a family, you have five females, and you won’t make a choice of husbands for them, but allow them to go and choose the husbands of their choice. It is their constitutional right to do that. So, if the governor told the electorate to ‘vote any candidate of your choice,’ who you know will follow the same page, the page of development, the page of taking care of the welfare and security of the people in their various localities, which is the grassroots, he has not done anything out of the ordinary. This is because the people at the grassroots know the contestants and the contestants know the people, irrespective of the political affiliation of the contestants. It is also the right of the electorate to choose and not the governor to select for them.
What is the relationship between LP and the Zenith Labour Party in Abia State?
There is no relationship. The relationship, if there is any, is that the LP and ZLP are political parties. Apart from that, we have what is called the Inter-Party Advisory Council, an umbrella that connects all the political parties in Nigeria.
Aren’t you surprised that the LP didn’t field a single candidate for the LG election?
No, we fielded candidates and they went to the poll. An election is just like an examination. If you know the system, if you know the arithmetic, you will follow the rules of that arithmetic and at the end of the day, you will get it right. Like in marriage in the church, the arithmetic is one plus one is equal to one; but on the other divide, if you say one plus one, it is two.
There is a rumour that the LP in Abia has concluded plans to roll into ZLP. How true is this?
Who is peddling such rumour? Sometimes, when such rumours are flying, you sit down in your closet and think. This man (Otti) is the leader of the LP. He is the governor of Abia State. He is the only governor produced by the LP in Nigeria. How can he come back to a party that is not known? We have made the LP to become a household name in Nigeria. Even an unborn baby knows our slogan: ‘LP 74, Obi my brother 78, Otti 79.’ Even the school children know it; it’s a household name. It is only somebody who is myopic politically that can reason that way.
What are your plans to ensure that the LP recovers lost grounds in the next elections at the local government, state and national levels?
We have to go back to the drawing board and know where we didn’t get it right and re-strategise. In the Bible, Jesus Christ said the sower spread his seeds, some survived, some died and what the sower did was to go back and check what caused those things. If God himself would say that, what of human beings? We might not get it right at all times, but the thing is when you didn’t get it right, did you go back to check why you didn’t get it right as a leader?
Are you not bothered about the loss to another party, considering that in local council polls in the country, the ruling party always clears all the elective positions at the grassroots level?
Let me give you this analogy – when your mother dies, would you die with her? No; what you do is to go back. Even when people console you, you will say, it is natural. You wouldn’t say when your mother dies, you will die or because your mother died, therefore you will follow her. So, if we lose an election, you want me to lose my life? Is that what you are insinuating? What makes a soldier gallant? He who fights and runs away goes back to fight another day. A soldier went to battle and his battalion was wiped out, he will not say he wants to die. He goes back to re-strategise for another war another day and conquer every other person.
Don’t you think the outcome of the election will create a leeway for the opposition parties?
If I don’t know what I am doing, if I don’t go back to the archives, to bring out, to look at, to listen, then I haven’t learned from history. Some people have passed this route before us and they had things like this, at the end of the day, they succeeded. They went back to look at their failures and where they got it right: What did they do that led to the failure? After the failure, what did they do to get it right? If you are a good manager or leader, you will try to mend some situations, even where they got it right to go ahead of them. In the school of philosophers, you see the Machiavellis, you see the Maxists, all of them, one after the other, just like that. You might be my teacher, but as days go on, I may be ahead of you. That is what life is all about
What is your message to the LP faithful at this trying time?
I want them to know that the Labour Party is intact, the Labour Party is focused: and the Labour Party has a direction and we are very formidable, irrespective of the distractions from either left or right, up or down. We are focused and we have a direction and above all, God is with us. When God is with you, you will do exploits. People say politics is a bad game; it is when you play it outside the wisdom of God and His direction. In 2023, I was one of the zonal chairmen. One man came to my office to see me and told me that for this election, there was something he wanted us to do immediately; that Otti would win this election outright and that nothing would happen. I opened my ears to hear him. He then said that there was one shrine in Abayi in Aba. He also mentioned the name of that shrine in Aba and said Otti will only come and shake the hand of the priest of that shrine and everything will be over. I have not told His Excellency this because there is no need to tell him. I know that I was capable of handling it with or without him. I asked him if he was a Christian, he said yes, and I asked him which denomination, he said SDA. I told him His Excellency would not do that and there was no need to tell him and that we would win the election that we are children of God and that we cannot serve two masters at a time, as we are serving a living God. God, who promises and fulfils His promise. I now began to preach to the young man. For him to get up from where he sat was a very big problem for him. At the end, he said, “I have learnt a lot from you. Thank you, sir.” Where are we today? So, whatever you are doing, put God first. God said He would go before and after us. No matter the storms, they will come and go. As for 2027, when the time comes, when we get to the bridge, we will know how to cross it.
Any advice for the opposition?
My advice for them is yes, in politics, some of the ingredients are propaganda and criticism, but they should criticise constructively. They should criticise with focus. They should have a direction and not criticise out of anger or agony; they should do away with PhD syndrome. You can’t destroy him who God has ordained. Otti’s governance and his emergence is an act of God. As far as he is ordained, nobody can destroy him. Even I, as the state chairman, did not lobby for it. It is an act of God and nobody can equally destroy me. Instead, God will continue to increase His leadership quality in me for us to move forward and the Labour Party will continue to grow from height to height, from glory to glory. That is my advice to them.