LP still holds Obi, Otti in high esteem despite conflict – Spokesman

Obiora Ifoh is the National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party. The spokesman opened up to ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS on the crisis rocking the party, the alleged threat to sanction former LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Governor Alex Otti over the contentious Nenadi Usman Caretaker Committee and reaction to the loss of the party’s Edo governorship candidate, Olumide Akpata, in this exclusive interview

What’s Labour Party’s position on Peter Obi and Abia Governor Alex Otti’s alleged betrayal following the inauguration of Nenadi Usman’s caretaker committee?

The committee, as you are well aware, is a product of illegality. And we do not recognise it because it is not a product of the Nigerian Constitution and the electoral law. It is also not a product of the Labour Party Constitution. It is just an amalgamation of some members and leaders of the party who think that the party should surrender its authority to them. Their action was not backed by any law. Therefore, it is unrecognisable and unlawful and we don’t reckon with that group or whatever name they call themselves.

So, what’s the fate of Obi and Otti?
They are the leaders of the party and we hold them in high esteem. We are sure they were misinformed before taking that decision. Very soon, they will retrace their steps and return to the main fold of the party.

Are you are ruling out sanctions? 

No, there won’t be any sanction on those leaders because, as I told you earlier, they were misinformed and that does not attract any punitive action. They are our leaders and stars. We think it is left for us to put them through, guide them and make them to see reasons on why they should retrace their steps. We need everyone in the party. We are not going to chase away anybody. That is why our doors are wide open for people who want to stay. The issue we have with the Labour Party is that the party has its programme and ideology. The ideology is for people to have the same like-mind; people who will think Nigeria and those at the lower cadre first. We are not a bourgeoisie party that is cult-like. It is a party that runs an open-door policy. That is why those leaders (Obi and Otti) are very important to us. We are not going to play with them or issue any sanction whatsoever.
Julius Abure alleged betrayal from people they accommodated and gave tickets from another party. Is it an indication that they were behind the rift in your party?

What he tried saying was that we threw our doors open to people from other parties who came in not knowing that the party had a totally different constitution different from what they were used to. So, their arguments were based on what they had in the other political parties. For instance, they talked about a convention that had to start from the ward, local governments, state to national levels. But that is not what our constitution says. These are some of the problems. It was like having to indoctrinate them again to understand the party they now belonged. You will recall that nearly six months into this government, we were the first political party to shout that our legislators were not following the policies of Labour Party. We told them not to even accept the jumbo pay or expensive cars that ran into millions of naira offered to National Assembly members. That is not what Labour Party stands for. After that, we expected them to take the money and put it into the grassroots, the people who suffered and worked for their victories. They were supposed to be servant leaders. But most of them turned themselves into lords, expecting the masses to worship them. These were not the ideals of Labour Party when it was created. So, we tried to let them know that they should go back to the constitution of the party to study what Labour Party is all about.

Many came in and tried to disrupt the flow of the party. So, that’s why we are shouting now. Up to this moment, some of them have not been able to imbibe such a culture in the Labour Party. So, we will keep on talking. Some were given free tickets. The truth is that many of them contested elections in other political parties and lost before coming to Labour Party. So, we gave them tickets, prepared, campaigned and supported them to win elections. We gave them waivers and stood by them all through the legal process. These are things that other political parties will charge millions. But we never did. So, that is why we are surprised by the insubordination.

Many people are eager to know if the Lamidi Apapa faction is still in your camp. Has Abayomi Arabambi also replaced you as national publicity secretary of the party?

On the issue of the spokesman, I Obiora Ifoh, remains the only National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party. I contested the election in the last convention and I won. And I have four years to serve. Nonetheless, you are aware that the crisis in the party is huge. There are many people claiming so many things. I’m sure by now people know there are up to three purported national chairmen in the party, people claiming all sorts of things. But we are not going to fight that because we are opening our doors for every aggrieved person to come in to put our house in order. Title is not important to us. What is important is the possibility of a new Nigeria and the need to put Nigeria first. Nigeria is in a cross road, so no sensible Nigerian should be worried about title now, we want to fix Nigeria first. Having said that, we have no problem with Lamidi Apapa and the rest of them. They left the party because they were misadvised. They have since realised their mistakes and they have fallen in line. They are now back to the party, as far as I know, they have not joined or declared for any other party. Our doors are open to any errant member that decides to repent and come back. We will readmit them. We will also do the same to some of those people that attended that illegal meeting in Umuahia. They were misinformed and acted grossly under ignorance. But I am sure very soon, they will realize their mistakes and come back. They say the more, the merrier. In politics, number is the game.

Since this drama of the inauguration of a caretaker committee) started, has Obi reached out to your NWC? 

Well, I can tell you that we are not fighting anyone. We are not in any way in enmity with the leader or even the Governor of Abia State. We are not in any confrontation with them personally. It is all about interests. It’s all about a misinformation created by an outsider, which we didn’t handle properly. I can tell you, regrettably that our leaders have not spoken with the National Working Committee as a group but they are talking to individuals. In conflict resolution, you don’t cherry pick individuals to work with, no one is totally useless. The NWC was completely neglected and that is working against the peaceful resolution. Fortunately, the NWC is united in this battle. You don’t cut someone’s hair in his absence.
Political analysts observed that failure to have a united front cost Labour Party the governorship election in Edo State. Do you agree?
That is a misconception. The Edo election is something that Labour Party has refused to comment on, at least officially. The party put in enough energy throughout the campaign. We made sure we went to all the wards twice and covered every nook and cranny. The candidate (Olumide Akpata) has a very big personality. All these things put together are enough to give us victory. But the party believed that the votes were allocated, I call it allocation because that was not the figure the party got. It’s something that is inconceivable. This is why the party is taking its time to look into the data, in-depth analysis of what happened, to find out why we got that abysmal number after all the efforts put in the campaign. I can tell you that out of the three top parties that contested that election, the Labour Party was a lot more united than the other two political parties. I’m sure you remember that even the former presidential candidate and some other leaders of the party were there on a couple of occasions. For us to end up with that number of votes, it’s something that we need to investigate and find out whether it was an awarded vote or earned vote. I think somebody somewhere played a fast one on us, but we’ll dig deep and find out exactly what happened. Only then can the party make a formal statement afterwards.

With the continued giant strides of the ruling APC amid allegations of state capture, don’t you nurse fears Nigeria may be heading towards a one-party system?

No, it won’t be the first time we saw a ruling party trying to muzzle some other contending parties. But we are aware that all the state actors are Nigerians who can see how things are getting even more difficult for their families and loved ones. They are aware that if they continue to support evil, it will eventually catch up with them someday. So, the attempt to muzzle democracy in Nigeria will be resisted by everyone, including people in the system.

So, I do not think this idea of a one-party system is proper; it may just be a hoax. You know the political class is just using it to ensure that the people in the system do the right thing. But the truth about it is that there is an attempt to emasculate the political system. But it will be resisted. Nigerians will no longer be taken for a ride. Nigerians will stand up and fight for democracy. Democracy has come to stay in the country and democracy does not favour one-party system. Otherwise, we will be practicing autocracy and that is not what we want in Nigeria.

With the Federal High Court judgment that affirmed Abure as national chairman, why are some leaders of the party and the LP caretaker committee still agitated?

We have always maintained that our convention in Nnewi is valid, constitutional and in line with all legal rules and laws of the nation. People may not buy the outcome of the convention, but that does not nullify the convention. It is a pity that INEC played a role in stoking the controversies. But it is only a regulatory body. It does not confer legitimacy. What the judgement has done is to confer legitimacy on the leadership of Julius Abure. And like the other 18 political parties, we will take our seat in the committee of political parties in Nigeria. We will now also begin to compete favourably in all electoral matters in Nigeria. That is on one side. We are also using this opportunity to let our members, particularly some of our leaders who were deceived earlier, to note that a political party is a corporate entity that has its own rules and regulations, which must be obeyed and abided. No one, no single individual is higher than a political party. We are using this opportunity to ask them to retrace their steps. We know they were deceived into taking the position, but we are asking them to have a repentant heart because we are ready to bring them on board and pretend as if nothing happened. And we will move on from there. Our target is to rescue Nigeria in 2027. We cannot do it with a divided house.
Your former presidential candidate, Obi, alongside Governor Alex Oti and the caretaker committee announced they will appeal the judgment. What’s your reaction?

It would be unfortunate if they toe that line, because you can’t appeal a judgment that you are not a party to. The Caretaker Committee is not a body known to the Labour Party constitution. It is not a body known to the electoral law or even to the constitution of Nigeria. So, they do not even have a locus. The body was not part of the suit. The suit was between the Labour Party and INEC. So, you cannot appeal what you are not involved in. There are so many instances in the Nigerian law that says if you are not a party to any suit, you cannot appeal. So, they have an alternative, maybe they can start a fresh suit. But their name, as I told you, is not even recognised by the law. It is not even in the constitution. It is not even registered. So, how will they start? You don’t just wake up one morning and put some names together and say who will listen to you. So, they don’t have any locus. But that is not even important. What is important is that the Labour Party has been in existence and we have our fair share of crisis, which has been firmly resolved in the interest of the party. So if ab initio they were arguing that the party is not recognised, and that is why they are pulling out and form the transition committee, now the court has said the party is recognised. So, what is the need going for appeal? That means they already have intentions to grab power. When you say they have any intention, it is that INEC said that this leadership is not recognised. But the court has said no, that this leadership is recognised. Why don’t you just fall in line and let the party grow? What will be their objection or the reason for appeal? Is it that you don’t like the leadership and want to bring your own leadership? So, that is the mentality of some of our politicians, which we are trying to change. If you don’t like the leadership, you will have to wait until its term expires in four years. For now, the leadership of Julius Abure will expire in 2028. That is what the law has said.

Since the news of the judgment went viral, has there been any reaction from INEC, in terms of communicating or relating with the NWC?

No, INEC will only communicate with you when there is need for that. But for now, there has not been any need because it is usually when they have quarterly meetings with political parties or when there is a correspondence to issue to political parties. It is not as if it is peculiar to Labour Party. I know that INEC is a law-abiding institution. They will abide by the law because they too will not appeal. There won’t be any need for them to appeal anyway unless they are partisan. But for now, everything is good.

In the face of economic hardship, you claimed LP has the template to revamp the economy and restore investor’s confidence. How do you plan to do it?

Yes, we have said it several times because we are prepared for governance. We have done all our homework. We came up with a solid plan and strategy to move Nigeria into a nation that we all want to have. During the election campaign, we came out with so many blueprints on how we will turn around this nation. Those things are still there. Things are bad but things including the economic crisis can also be resolved. The political challenges, constitutional matters and a lot of things that are going wrong under this government can be arrested and put back into shape because we have the blueprints. All you need to do is go back, watch our tapes and what we said that we will do during the campaign.  The greatest challenge Nigeria has is that we have a mono-economy system of government where we depend on petroleum. That is why we are having issues. Any challenge in the petroleum sector will affect every other thing in Nigeria. In the last few days, they said the cost of pump price went up. As a result, there is turbulence everywhere. Now, what happened to all our refineries? Sometime last year they said they had technically completed the refineries. That is over one year. So, why are they not producing? And if they are producing, what is the quantity of what they are producing? Who is buying and where is the market? So, there is a whole lot of things going on that nobody is telling us, that are hidden under the table. That is what Labour Party is set to change. We will come up with transparent leadership and government. And we will move away from the mono-economy that we have. We will diversify. Nigeria can feed the rest of Africa because we have the landmass and we have the human capacity. So why are we not doing it? The millions and billions of money invested in building roads that is not presently needed in Nigeria, if you channel that into agriculture, things in Nigeria will change. And funny enough, agriculture is a project that is dead for years. Within one year, we will start feeding the rest of Africa.

Do you support the idea of the current administration seeking the help and experience of former President Goodluck Jonathan to stabilise our currency?
It is not about seeking help. It is about the ideology of the party. The ideology is to bring hardship. The ideology is like what this current President said, to continue from where the previous President stopped. It is about the pain and penury they intend to inflict on Nigeria and they are succeeding. At this rate, I don’t know where Nigeria will be in the next three years. At this rate, people can’t pay their health bills and even eat. Every day, they are increasing taxes. And they are achieving what they want to achieve. You can see the rate of school dropouts. So, it is not about being stubborn. It is about the policy.