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From Idu Jude, Abuja
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the youth wing of the Labour Party (LP) has announced that it will largely rely on the country’s youth demographic to garner votes that will secure victory for its candidates contesting various positions.
The National Youth Leader (NYL) of the party, Comrade Chimaobi Opara, who spoke in an exclusive interview with The Sun, stressed that the party has an edge because it can leverage existing structures across the 774 local government areas of the country through the platforms of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Further explaining, he said: “The Labour Party is not just like any other political parties springing up across the nation. This party is a combination of the NLC and its affiliates, the TUC and its affiliates. This also includes politicians and non-politicians, who make up the Labour Party. There are no spheres of life that the party is not in; even the NUJ, the NUT, ASUU, the Okada union, workers in every sector of the economy are automatically members of the Labour Party because the party is primarily their party, and that is why it was registered as the Labour Party, and that is how it was structured from the onset.”
He said the youth wing of the party operates with six deputy national youth leaders overseeing the six geopolitical zones of the country.
According to him, the zonal deputy national youth leaders coordinate activities within their zones and report to him at the national headquarters for possible action.
Comrade Opara said plans had already been made on how to carry out the national summit once the party primaries are over. “Immediately after the party primaries, the programme will be rolled out across the six geopolitical zones. All these are meant to sensitise and galvanise the youths who are into political participation,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Comrade Opara said his administration has used Nigerian youths to come out and challenge the mantle of leadership by participating fully in politics.
“I’m calling the Nigerian youths that the only way to challenge the obnoxious practices in this country is to come out and be part of the process. This is because no one fights from the outside. And it is not enough to say that the youths have been abandoned or have not been carried along. If one does not participate there will be nothing for him or her because politics is participatory.
“Recently, we had the national conference of youth leaders of political parties, and our communiqué is calling on the Nigerian youths not to sit on the fence anymore. We advised ourselves that we should not be just youth leaders but should be able to participate in the decision-making of various political parties in which they find themselves. That is when they participate in the decision-making that they are included in the leadership process. So, among these and others are what we are going to address across the six geopolitical zones to sensitise them and make sure that they engage themselves in politics and elective positions of various political parties so that they can be part of the process,” he stated.
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Commenting on the timing and schedule for the summits, he lamented paucity of funds but said the plan is to hold the summit at zonal level rather than across the 36 states and the FCT, to reduce financial pressure.
Opara said that all states within each zone would be expected to hold their summit at a zonal headquarters, adding that state summits could come after the zonal events, depending on the financial capacity of the youth wing.
To kick-start the programme, he said arrangements had been concluded to start from the North Central, to be hosted in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where national leaders will familiarise themselves with and address the youths on the task ahead. This, he added, would be followed by a visit to the National Working Committee (NWC) Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman.
“After the Abuja summit, we will be moving to Umuahia to visit the party national leader, Governor Alex Otti. He is our leader and the best-performing governor in Nigeria at the moment. He is our role model. We shall be there on a solidarity visit and be able to make him know our programmes.
“It is upon these points that we communicate this message of the forthcoming summit to rejig the party because the name LP is ingrained in the minds of Nigerians since the 2023 presidential election. Irrespective of the fact that many people have left, we will use this platform to relaunch the fact that the party remains great,” he said.
Furthermore, he said what the party needs to relaunch itself in the minds of Nigerians is essentially sensitisation using Nigeria’s youth demographic.
Comrade Opara frankly decried the lack of Labour Party structures in a few states of the federation but reiterated that those who form the party’s membership are not just politicians; they are largely people who work in the public and private sectors using NLC and TUC platforms across the 774 local government areas.
“Let me tell you something. All the affiliate unions have agreed to work with us inasmuch as the mother unions, the NLC and TUC, are concerned, because one of the good things that Senator Nenadi Usman–led NWC successfully did was to unite the party with the labour unions.
“She has been able to endear the LP to the affiliate unions and for them to form a formidable force, and I can tell you that those states considered not to be LP-controlled are indirectly for the party with the existence of labour unions.
“The only thing we need is to activate them and sensitise them so that they will fully understand and be represented. However, we know that we cannot get all of them because other powers want to buy into them,” he added.
