The Chairman of the Labour Party National Transition Committee (LPNTC), Abdulwaheed Omar, has vowed that they would take over and reposition the party ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Omar in this interview with Sunday Sun said this has become necessary as the tenure of Julius Abure as the chairman of the party expired in April last year.

The former President of the NLC said that part of NTC’s terms of reference, includes amending the Labour Party constitution that would ensure grassroots politics or the bottom-to-top approach in choosing party executives.

He also said that this move is to rescue the party from sole administratorship and to enshrine democracy which is grossly lacking in the party presently.

Your committee has been accused of trying to foment trouble by setting up a factional Labour Party, is this true?

That is an opinion of disillusioned and biased people who have not been able to know the rubric of the matter and the reason for the move by stakeholders to rescue the Labour Party from Julius Abure. Part of the reasons we went out on demonstration at the Labour Party headquarters was also to register our feelings and to enable the people to know that the committee is working and that we have gone far. Also, we want to register in the minds of all Nigerians, that the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC/ TUC and other stakeholders are serious about taking back their party. However, we are not saying that peace and reconciliation are not good for the party and as our leader, Mr Peter Obi’s call for peace is a good gesture, but we hope that Abure and other misled people will be able to acknowledge the truth to give peace a chance to embrace the reconciliation Peter Obi seeks.

Can you give us a background of how it all began?

Well, it is instructive to know that Julius Abure started getting it wrong when he did not allow the gestation period to elapse before jumping to appoint party executives without going through a ward congress where, community, wards and local government would elect for themselves the ones, the community accepts to have a structure where everybody is familiar with. At that level, they know who is a capable leader, who is capable of being a chairman, who is capable of being a secretary or treasurer. So, thereafter, the ward will be directed or requested to conduct a delegate election, where the delegates will go for local government election. After that, the officers will emerge and they will be given time to know themselves for not more than two to three sittings to know themselves and thereafter conduct a delegate election at the local government level that will go for the state election. The same process will be taken from the state. This is at the point where we have claims and objections, where every state will be allowed to make claims and objections so that people will know duly registered members of the party. So, it is a kind of cleaning up with in-house leadership training from the ward to the local government and the state level before the national convention. By the time the national officers of the party converge for the national convention, they would have been trained on the Labour Party constitution as it were. On the manifesto of the party as it were. On the Electoral Act and the Constitution as amended. After that, the committees already working on the constitution to make it more democratic. We saw that the constitution was not meant for the open participation of party members, and the party is not a cult, where information is concealed for just a few people. So, we found out that the constitution lacked the necessary details that the party should work with to make it participatory. We want to make the party constitution liberal and people-friendly. We believe that people should use the party constitution freely without being boxed, without being cajoled or put under duress. So, the new constitution is expected to untie these grey areas and to be freely used by members of the party like every other party. Also, we need to look at the party manifesto and make a review, which should be people-oriented. And if the cause of the document fails to address the gains of democracy, then the party has achieved nothing. So, Labour Party manifesto should be people-driven, and it should be user-friendly to address masses-oriented programmes. Take, for instance, the area of agriculture, the area of youth empowerment, and health provision to address numerous sectors for economic empowerment. So, during the conversation, these working documents will be formally adopted and that was what I was trying to expatiate as generated by Distinguished Sen. Victor Lar and am delighted to be part of the process to renew the Labour constitution and consequently a new Nigeria.

Looking at the constitution, which you said is not people-oriented, are you to bring a new one or an amendment of the one Julius Abure is using?

If you know, or maybe you have not been aware, that the first constitution was drafted in 2007. We had another one in 2015 as amended then we have another one amended in 2019, which is currently on the INEC portal, but the fact remains that all these amendments were carried out by one person. They went to the new and amended an amended constitution and it was made a kind of Julius Abure’s micromanaged document of the party so if we need a liberal and democratic party, then we won’t have a constitution that tilts towards dictatorship. So, that is why we are calling for that, we need to bring all the constitution and review it page by page and look at what it was in 2007, what it was in 2015 and what it should be in the future. Don’t forget that 49 countries are involved in the Labour Party movement. Some are in government, some are retired just as we are, battling to take the realm of government in their respective countries. In preparing our own we are also going to take a look at the Labour Party constitution of such countries to know what they say concerning similar issues we are asking for in Nigeria.

Before taking these steps of setting up a committee for constitution amendment, did the NLC invite Julius Abure and his team for harmonization?

Yes, we did, on April 8, 2024, Julius Abure together with his group, having been recognized as part of the Labour Party, were invited to the stakeholder meeting, but they did not come so we have not had any other for a, where we can bring other stakeholders together. And remember that Labour Party is not just the assembly of party executives alone. We have first our 2023 presidential candidate who did very well, then we have elected members of the Senate, elected members of the House of Representatives, the State Governors, as well as state assembly members. These are all stakeholders and we have those of us who are party supporters and members, who have contributed immensely, financially and intellectually in the process of all these developments. We are all stakeholders. When we called for the meeting, all were invited and all attended the stakeholders meeting except Abure and his group.

Here your committee seems to have good intentions, but what if Abure and his men show no concern for changing the Constitution?

No, there Is no issue of resistance, the fact is that the party as it were needs a constitutionally elected National Chairman because Abure’s tenure has elapsed by the 9^th of June.

And coming from the Asaba National Executive Council meeting, NEC, held on the 8^th of April 2023 which INEC participated, Abure was given a one-year extension to enable him to organize the 2023 presidential election. And within that period there was a consent judgment by Justice Gabriel Kolawole to ensure that NLC/TUC is included in the party’s National Executive Council meeting NEC. And also in the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Labour Party. Also, the judgment mandates him to hold ward, local government and state congresses and hold a national convention, which he did not do. He also failed to inaugurate the BOT of the party according to the judgment. This was an out-of-court settlement in which its decision was to be enforced by the court and the INEC, was appointed to be an arbiter. As I speak to you, those directives were not met and to me that was even a contempt of court because the court endorsed the out-of-court resolutions. So, the bottom line here is that Abure’s tenure has elapsed, but for the Labour Party leadership to remain obsolete makes the whole thing bizarre and that is why we the stakeholders have said no that such won’t continue in our party and I know that a lot of people out there do not know what is going on because it is a case of who talk more that people hear and intend to believe, but the truth is that his tenure has expired and for him to insist on continuing with an expired mandate, it is a slap to some of us who can read in-between the lines.

Abure has severally claimed that his re-election was backed up by the party constitution, do you agree to that?

This is part of our constraints, there was a kangaroo convention held at Nnewi, Anambra State, as we heard. But some members of the party have gone to court to file charges against him as we talk because he is no longer qualified to call for party congress. Let me remind you that the convention is a nullity because it did not comply with the constitution of the party. Because for you to have such a convention, there would have been ward, local government and state congresses, that never happened. So, for him to just hand-pick those to show up as ward and local government and state executive officers, brought to Nnewi in a small hotel room in the name of holding a convention of about 80 party executives and their supporters. And this is a party that has over six million supporters across the country and beyond. This is a party that garnered over six million votes in the 2023 presidential election.

Even if about three million are card-carrying members it is still inadequate to bring less than 80 people to a convention to represent them. That is unacceptable and more so the constitution was breached.

Having said all this, what is the reason for your protest at the Labour Party headquarters?

You see, the National Transition Committee (NTC) had a meeting and all party stakeholders have not had a feel of what we have been doing and it is pertinent we bring them together to see what we are doing. We believe we should bring them together from time to time to brief them to avoid the rumours indeed to show them that we are working to put a strong party structure in place for them to be able to come over to vie for positions because the most important thing here is to make sure that Labour Party becomes attractive to others.

Believe me, people want to contest from wards, local government to states up to the national executive office.

May we know when this constitution amendment would come to an end and the congresses and conventions take place?

Let me remind you again that there are sub-committees set by the transition committee and the committee on the constitution review, already has started working. The committee on the review of party mandate has started working. And other committees are also working underground and we are making sure that all the committees are populated with members. We would also move into the states and the local government and wards to replicate the same. Having said this it is a work in progress, so, I cannot specifically say the time we are concluding until we have all the committees at the National level put in place and these are people who would inform the party of the relevant committees at the various states and so we now contact the state chairman of the political commission to invite the stakeholders at the state to replicate what we have at the states. After this process, the party will give a window for new members’ registration period which may take up to three months. Within this period, the wards would have held two or three meetings for the party executives to know themselves because no one could vote whom he did not know during ward and local government elections. So, from those meetings, we can now start thinking of party convention having laid the foundation and structure for the wards and local governments. But now we are talking about setting up committees because it depends on the availability of human resources to be able to manage or to be in those committees.

From what you said, your constitution is not ready, Do you think you can meet up before the 2027 election?

Yes, I assure you, within six months we will be done with it and the process will begin and it is going to be NTC and INEC supervised all-inclusive, free, fair, credible and comprehensive Wards, LGAs, State Congresses and National Convention. Non-negotiable. Yes, we know that Peter Obi’s reconciliation effort is ongoing, but that is not stagnation. So, we urge Nigerians to join and support NTC’s three Cs programme, Canvass, Convince and Convert action to add 30 million new members across Nigeria into LP. Let the work begin.

How do you make INEC recognize what you are doing and not that of Abure?

Let me inform you that the committee sent a letter, through the president of NLC requesting audience with the chairman of INEC. So, we are waiting for that response and immediately they give us the date, the NLC president will lead the committee through the political commission to meet with the INEC chairman through which a formal introduction will be made because without INEC recognizing what the committee is doing then all should be an attempt in futility.

Is the NTC under your leadership willing to be part of Peter Obi’s reconciliation move?

Let me tell you, that there is no going back on the decision of party stakeholders to take back their party as Julius Abure’s tenure ended without a properly organized convention to usher in new leadership. For more emphasis, I can tell you that the confrontation you witnessed at the party headquarters was a remarkable attack that laid the foundation for Abure’s ouster.

What played out significantly at the LP office days ago was the characteristics of Julius Abure, it is the characteristics of a criminal and what we are doing here, is a very simple thing, but Nigeria being what it is, we have to witness what just happened, but we are not relenting. But that day marks the end of Abure’s leadership whether he has sponsors anywhere or not, we must tell him that we are Nigerians as well. Nobody will tell us how to mobilize in this country and we have seen how he had mobilized tugs to attack us with fuel cannon while the police watched it happen. Let me reiterate here that the transition committee is taking its protest to the highest level in its inquest to take over the party. It is time also to let the police know that the lives of all the party stakeholders need to be protected in matters like this and as citizens of this country who go about their legitimate duties. If our lives will not be protected by the Nigerian police then they should not also forget that we all are Nigerian workers who are taxpayers through their contributions the police are paid monthly and if they do not know that then it is unfortunate. But irrespective of the stones and fuel canons, we are going to strategize and come back to continue what we started.

The decision to take over LP headquarters was not purely NTC affairs, but the decision of all party stakeholders. Let me tell you that the NTC is just one stakeholder among other major stakeholders all that came together for the reason that the tenure of Julius Abure came to an end at the end of this month and there is no way we could allow him to continue. So all the party stakeholders decided to set up a transition committee, whose duties, are only to conduct conventions and congresses from the ward level to the local government level, to the state level and it would culminate into elections that would be free, fair and transparent, where National officers will be elected by the delegates of the party. This is exactly what we want and we must move ahead. As I told you earlier, there are many legal cases filed against Julius Abure, which is different from what the NTC, has come out to register, and that is how to salvage the party. But you should also know that the way Abure ascended to power was interesting and we are determined to terminate it now. First, he took over leadership while he was not next to the seat at the time, he was an acting Secretary and going by the party constitution, it is the Deputy National Chairman that should take over or those at the rank of first vice chairman, but all these were overlooked. Even when his tenure expired, Abure begged the NLC and other stakeholders to allow an extension of one year in order not to disrupt the National Presidential election, which all saw was in order and again Abure in one of the meetings, signed an agreement with the INEC and the NTC on how to organize a smooth transition through well-organized congresses and conventions all these he has defaulted and we say, enough is enough. (Sunday Sun)

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