Ongoing coalition gimmicks, power play – Umar Faruk, LP National Secretary

…Reveals plots by Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso to use PDP, LP, NNPP for selfish interests

• Speaks on Gov Otti, defections and APC strategies

 

From Idu Jude, Abuja

The National Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Umar Faruk Ibrahim, , has revealed that the call for a coalition of all the opposition parties is a political gimmick and decoy by the ruling APC targeted at weakening the opposition parties before the 2027 election with the help of political moles.

Umar in this interview with Sunday Sun revealed that the leadership crises in the PDP, NNPP, LP, and others were borne out of the inordinate desire of key political figures to control the party structures as bargaining chips to negotiate defection to APC.

He spoke on the LP crisis and other relevant issues.

The Julius Abure-led NWC has been accused severally of party merchandising, which is fueling the leadership crisis in the party, what are thoughts on this?

It is not true, and I can tell you that up till now nobody has come up with any substantial evidence to nail Abure. And I can also say with all due respect, those who allege that do so only on the pages of the newspapers. And for clarity sake, every political party has disciplinary measures and processes to address issues of misappropriation, mismanagement of funds, and misconduct. All these have not come into play till now. But I must tell you that it is the other way round because the political class is the chess masters playing the game. Let me ask you a question: why are the same leadership crises befalling all the opposition parties at the same time? First, it was People Democratic Party which featured Nyesom Wike versus Atiku;  in LP it was Abure versus Governor Otti and Peter Obi. And now it is NNPP, Kwankwaso versus the party leadership.  And NRM and APGA have their fair share, and so on. It is all about the political class trying to push out the leadership and use the party structures to trade and negotiate with the ruling party. What Wike represents in PDP, where he uses the party to get himself the attention of the ruling party (the buyer) is what Governor Otti wants to do in our party. Again, Kwankwaso is romancing the ruling party and, at the same time, trying to use the party as a negotiating power, which has been resisted by the leadership. We have it on good authority what they plan against the party, and it is not as if Mr. Peter Obi and Governor Otti are on good terms; no, this is because both of them want to control the party leadership, which they want to use for their reasons. It is all about who has a negotiating power that the ruling party recognises. It is all about the buyer and the seller getting the product across to each other, but that can only take place if such structures are handed over to such sellers. To some extent, such has been resisted, and that is the reason for the several crises we have today in several political parties. Again, what do the politicians mean when they talk about coalition? It means a different thing in the political arena. Who formed the coalition, and for what purpose? Is it the association of candidates or the association of political parties? We insisted that the coalition is already dead on arrival because what happened in 2023 cannot happen today. Because we sat down and reviewed the past mistakes and found out that was a decoy to sell the structure and a charade. These are people who cannot manage their political parties now calling for a huge number to control. These are people who can’t manage Abure and the NWC and now want us to join a coalition of PDP, NNPP, APC, and others. Others can’t even manage PDP, but they want to manage LP and APC. Now, we know them and their characters. Had it been they were fresh political parties and we knew there must be sacrifices forming a coalition one needed to sit down at a roundtable and work. Such was done during the 2014/15 merger, which worked out and because there was the clamour for power shift to the North, which the ruling party then was against and political players from the opposition came together to form a coalition. And if we should do that again, we should sit down and replicate what the North did and take power to the Southeast that has been missing as far as leadership is concerned in this country. You see, I am an advocate of power shift to the Southeast. That is just the moral disposition that made me support Mr. Peter Obi. Even though they don’t treat me well, I believe they should be allowed to lead. Do you think in forming this coalition, Kwankwaso will give up his ambition? Or tell me, who is a more qualified person between the two? Yet, Obi who has it on the platter is playing with it. I can also tell you that even at the level of the coalition, Peter cannot negotiate to be a sole candidate. It is not just going to be possible. He can’t even control them because we know them. Peter himself knows them. So, calling for a coalition is a gimmick to stimulate the polity, so that they would have political value and for the ruling party to call them for negotiation. One of the conditions is to first submit your political structure, and that is why some of them want to hijack the LP. Look at how the ruling party is taking them one after the other. You can see a sitting senator, a sitting governor in a strong opposition going back to the ruling party, and members heading to the ruling party. Please tell me, is it the problem of the political parties? And if they are talking about internal crisis, who then causes them, and what have they done to make sure that such are being resolved? It is obvious that the political class is fueling the crises, so we should just let them leave our party. Whether we are now in a one-party system, well, we believe it is a political evolution. In my entire life, I have witnessed this kind of administration. In all, I knew what caused the failure of Tafawa Balewa, Shehu Shagari’s failure, and the failure of the PDP because I was a member of the party. I won an election under PDP, but the whole system collapsed. Now, the APC is trying to manage the failure, they are forgetting something: as long as it is not constitutional, that ticket will be given to one candidate alone to context, they will be surprised. But instead of Atiku and Obi to deal with the situation, each of them is moving differently. Obi would like to carry the LP to the negotiating table, and Kwankwaso wants to take the NNPP structure to the negotiating table, and that is why there are crises there, too. Atiku wants to take PDP, and Wike is also there using the same party structure to favour himself while others kick and that was why I told you that Otti and Obi are also secretly battling because Otti is only fighting to grab control and defect after negotiating with APC. We knew that he was no longer 100 per cent LP. So, that is the power play. The entire gimmick about coalition is the handwork of alarmists and stomach infrastructure politicians. That is why some of the serious governors do not just fall before the coalition gimmicks. And I advise Otti to rethink and restrategize. Because even if they have their way, the same way they fought us is the same way we will fight back and destabilize them. We have shown them this leniency. I can tell you that none of the members of NWC or NEC has risen to defect to other parties. The only ones you witness are the political class jumping from one party to another.

Is Abure NWC still piloting affairs of the LP?

Let me tell you categorically that Barrister Julius Abure remains the authentic Labour Party Chairman, and Alhaji Umar Faruk Ibrahim, the National Secretary, together with other elected NWC members, were elected at the Nnewi Convention. As we speak, we are still taking responsibility for the management of the party. About two to three weeks ago, we had a series of NEC meetings, all to strengthening the position of the party because Supreme Court judgment was completely clear in affirming the authority and supremacy of political parties to elect their leaders. The NEC or NWC have no contention about the leadership of Abure and any other person can go and spew his or her narratives. The people parading themselves, running from pillar to post presenting the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgment to INEC, may have missed the shot because they forgot that the INEC was a party to the suit and must have a copy of the CTC given to them. But as of today, when you go to the INEC website you will still see Abure’s name as the LP Chairman.

Do you think your NEC got it right when it set up a disciplinary committee to probe the activities of the only governor in LP?

The party hierarchy has been so magnanimous in the past despite all odds. We have always extended an olive branch to defiant members because we are a party, but for how long will this last? For how long will you accommodate someone who does not like you, who doesn’t associate himself with you? This is an assumed highly respected individual and governor of a state to openly issue threats to the party that gave him the platform to be elected as a governor after being disgraced several times by other parties. And we tolerated that several times. Let’s give way to sentiment. Even President Tinubu swore to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So also, the NEC of the LP is sworn to uphold and defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that of the LP.  So if I, Umar Faruk Ibrahim, the National Secretary of the Labour Party, violate any of the constitutional provisions, then the disciplinary measures in the Constitutional provisions will be taken against me. So Alex Otti as an elected governor should know better that he is operating under the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that of the LP through which he was elected into office, and if he fails to respect that, then what do you think we should do? So, the ball is not in our court, it is at his side to decide because he knew that the constitution bestowed executive power to the elected leadership as provided by their respective parties and as enshrined in the Electoral Act. He knows that he has no constitutional right to call any meeting whatsoever without the approval of the leadership sworn-in to pilot the affairs of the party. Governor Otti has no power and he did that; not only to call for a meeting, but to sack everyone in the NWC. Can you imagine that level of impunity? If he had problems with Abure, it could be well understood as having problems with the NWC fine, but he did not consider the state executives of the party who elected him. Is this how to pay back those who stood against all problems, stood under the rain and the sun, and those who stood to fight machinery and encumbrances that stood in the way of an aspirant? All were put behind, and he was elected, and this is the way to pay back? Moreover, look at the people that stood and defended the votes of Mr. Peter Obi during the presidential election. People stood and defended their votes with all sincerity. I did my own to ensure that the LP won my constituency, and till now, I am proud to say it. As a Muslim and Hausa, I defended Peter Obi against all odds, and this is the reward I am getting. Is this the kind of reward that all LP faithful who supported Peter will get? Here, we are talking about those from the national, state, LG and wards executives. Governor Otti, within seconds, made a statement that could end the tenures of all of them. Let me even ask: when did Alex Otti join the LP, and who was he in the party? Let me also make it known that the party constitution gave Alex Otti the status of provisional NEC member and a statutory member of the NEC because he was elected on the platform of the LP, but that does not mean he stands above the party constitution. His actions were of no respect. Please help me ask Alex Otti what benefits he has had to the LP that gave him the mandate to contest the test of the election in Abia State apart from what he has caused by destroying his interest. All these are for personal interest. All these could have been done more diplomatically and in mature manner, to address grievances or misgivings about the Abure-led NWC if any. And not to unilaterally offer the elected leadership team NWC a second chance. How on earth did he ever think of that? The most annoying thing here is that Mr. Otti didn’t even study the party constitution to know how the Board of Trustees is constituted. For goodness sake, even if Abure is to be removed, it should be in a more convincing negotiation. Why are we in a hurry? Taking a look at all the things he has done, including the waste of time and resources of Abia State, what interest is it to him? Of what benefit is the imbroglio? Governor Otti has caused virtually all the problems in the LP. He is the cause of many party faithful leaving the party in droves. People say Abure was the problem; no, it was the problem of individual politicians who sought political power. Can you tell me why many of them who were elected under the party platform have left? They told us they were elected under the party because of Peter Obi, but Mr. Obi himself still claims that he remains a member of the LP, then why are they leaving if Obi is still here? Why can’t they stay with the Chief Obidient, who is still in LP? Why haven’t they stayed with the craving and aspirations of the party? Take a look at the LP manifesto. Look at what the LP stands for. It stands for social justice and equal opportunity, and in all these have our leaders and elected members lived with that philosophy? No, then is it Abure’s problem? Again, no. They forget that Abure is just a person out of 27 members of the NWC, and one of more than 100 members of the NEC. But the impunity to force Abure out of office was a stabbing at the LP leadership. Otti took us backward worse than where we were before. I can tell you for free that we were at a point where we found the party before they came to meet us with a well-constituted NWC and NEC leadership and we were managing the party and you came, the same INEC that had deprived you of your mandate, is the same INEC you stick together to fight the party leadership that gave you the mandate. Let’s look at this morally, is it just?

Amid this impasse, what is your NWC doing to organise wards, LG, and state congresses?

Let me tell you one thing, before now, we came up with a beautiful and well-structured programme of events that will usher the party to 2027 successfully. Unfortunately, the situation at the party has changed the plans we made. In case you don’t know the characteristics of all these aspirants, you will come to agree with me that this country is getting worse by the day because of the sit-tight syndrome in this country because of those whose intentions are to win elections at all costs. They believe that they must conduct elections and have control of the political parties wherever they find themselves. Is that not what is causing the problem in the PDP? Is that not what is destabilizing all other political parties? What we are witnessing now is that immediately, one of them is allowed to be elected, and the next thing he or she targets is to have control of the party; that is the problem. They don’t want to give any respect to or attach relevance to the party structures that brought them to where they are. Not minding that when they came, they were running helter skelter, begging for tickets, but once they got it, they turned to emperors. That is how they are; they are all like that, and that is why we are where we are. I can tell you that the political parties have good structures, with well-established constitutions and manifestos, and as I said earlier, immediately a candidate emerges, he will usurp the powers of the party officials and administrators and those people who came onboard with Peter Obi to win elections are those who are now fighting us. And to make matters worse, the men whom we helped, Peter Obi and Governor Otti, who are supposed to be on our side to give us protection, have abandoned us. I can tell you that Peter Obi tried, but unfortunately, he missed it along the way, not knowing that Governor Otti was playing his own game to be the party leader and have control of the structures across Nigeria, just like what Nyesom Wike did in PDP. I can tell you also that Obi has fallen for it, and at the end of the day, he will be the loser. This is going to play out because Otti is going to use the law of our party to bargain with the ruling party against 2027. In Otti’s recent TV interview, it was obvious that he is no longer a member of the LP. He has already stepped out of the LP. After constituting his exco and now making all the LG in his state become members of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), where they were all elected, tell me if he truly was doing the right thing. Is that not anti-party activity? Is that not enough to expel him from the party? Yes, because so many others have been expelled from the party for the same reasons. So, in other words, the outlined programmes of the party for 2025 were subsumed and suspended because of the trouble Governor Otti brought to the LP. And God knows they caused the crisis because they wanted to destroy it and flee to another party waiting to receive them after negotiations. For example, all those defecting have been to one party, APC, APAC, and APC again. Only one former LP chieftain left for PDP. And I can tell you that before the elections, Governor Otti will go back to the APC. All they are after is how to win the elections and from which party, that is why they are so itinerant, moving from one party to another. They are not after the party ideology or the people who gave them the ticket, so what are they doing? We should know that the political class is not people of good conscience and concern. They are people of interest. That is why things are not going well in Nigeria. Politics of interests clouds their sense of reasoning.

Now that the Supreme Court judgment has been delivered, what is stopping the holding of ward, local government and state congresses?

How can you go into elections, when there are obstacles of people challenging you all over? These are people who are supposed to support you to ensure that they have contributed to the benefits of those who gave them political mandates. If I may ask, how can you even work with people who may eventually leave the party? I have been in the LP for the past 10 years right from being a member, state chairman, national vice chairman, and now, National Secretary of the party. So, you can see the progression that took up to 10 years to achieve. But here we have someone who came in yesterday and wishes to throw me out illegitimately and assume leadership of the party. You see, the problem we are having is that people sympathise with the political class whom we helped and, to a greater danger, see Peter Obi and Governor Otti at face value looking inward to analyse the performances of these men who lie to them each time they ascend to offices. Because of failed assignments from the public, we keep having sycophants and hypocrites carrying out shenanigans. For example, people erroneously conceived that Mr. Peter Obi made the Labour Party; no, it isn’t so, and he Obi knew it. I can say this because Obi met the Labour party with an existing structure. Even during the 2023 election, they cried out that we had no structure on the ground; it was a campaign gimmick to gain sympathy votes, which failed woefully. We are present at every ward in 774 local governments across the country. If not, then who voted for us? How did the LP get the votes? How did the Labour Party monitor their votes across Nigeria? It is necessary that even the press should start exposing these shameless politicians. If not, they will keep destroying every party they join.  For example, Obi was in APGA before heading to PDP, and when the PDP tried to mess him up, he ran to the LP. We gave him the opportunity, and when someone tried to pass some comments that Obi made about the LP, I shut him down because he was speaking in ignorance. Because I knew the person I was talking about and the dynamics in the politics of 2023 were such that the Igbo ganged up in solidarity because the PDP denied them the ticket and arrogantly snitched them that they could do nothing about it. Former President Muhammadu Buhari also tried to ostracise them, and as a result, the enterprising tribe came out to support their own, and we saw the massive support. In another example of these politicians, they came up with Muslim-Muslim ticket and we know how they also moved from one church to another begging for votes, the same way the APC was going from one mosque to another. We know all their styles and let Peter go to another party, pick a ticket, and see the degree of opposition there. But can anyone tell me why they can’t leave the LP alone? Must it be the LP? Maybe they think they can just kill it like they killed other political parties. I told them not to mess up with us because we would mess them up. I can tell you that we want reconciliation, but they don’t want us to reconcile with them. As I told them earlier, I can personally leave the party for a better qualified person if they don’t want me here.

From what you have said, it means there is no cause for alarm as far as Abure-led NWC is concerned?

Yes. Quote me anywhere: the Abure-led NWC is intact and not shaken. The LP is a full-fledged registered political party. The LP flourished before now. It was not only in 2023 that we made known the party. We have had a governor in the person of Olusegun Mimiko, who successfully led Ondo State for eight years. So, Mr. Alex Otti is not the first and cannot be the last the LP would have in its record. We had Senators, House of Representatives members, state Assembly members, and so on. These all took place before Otti and Obi so what are you telling me? But the only thing here is that we are facing a different kind of political evolution as far as this political dispensation is involved, talking about 2023 to 2027. And looking at that, we can see that those to be blamed for the woes are the political class, not the administrators. For example, the PDP is in disarray because of the Wike and Atiku supremacy war, and the Labour Party is also having problems because of Peter Obi and Alex Otti who want to control the party structure and this is what people do not know. People who want to be the leader of the party which they can use for negotiation? You may not agree with me, but I can tell you that is the issue.

How can people believe when they are both together against your group?

That is the issue they are having. They are from the same zone, trying to outdo each other on who takes control of the party leadership. I can tell you also that they have never been good friends. We know all of them individually, and we know their differences against each other, which they pretend not to have in the public. I am letting it out to you today; the real reason the LP has an issue is the war of control of the party between Peter Obi and Otti. Can someone tell me why Otti would solicit that we conduct a convention in Umuahia and promise to sponsor it? And why was Peter Obi during the convention following us up to Asaba in Delta State, where we had our first meeting and to make sure that the conversation was taken from Umuahia to Anambra? Then tell me why Otti sent his Deputy, all Assembly members, and all his commissioners to witness the convention. You see, these people have missed the target. In politics, sometimes you need to come out to fight hard because these people are not Godly. It is all about political interests, and unfortunately, they failed because they understand us, and they regret it if they knew they had failed. They thought it would be so easy to remove us, and to make matters worse, it has taken up to a year now because they don’t have locus standi. We took the INEC to court because we have the strength and the legal position to do that. We took them to court not because of the crisis, but because of INEC’s infractions and refusal to do the right thing. We sued them because they violated their own rules and regulations. And when they saw our moves, Nenadi and Otti smuggled themselves to join the case as parties to the matter. Julius Abure didn’t approach the court as a person, but in the name of the Labour Party versus the INEC. Let me make one clarification: people talk about the Supreme Court judgment without directing the details. Please show me the part of the judgment that said the party should appoint Nenadi as Caretaker Committee Chairman. Or where did the judgment indicate that Julius Abure should not continue as the leader of the party? What the judgment said was that courts should not interfere in the matters of political parties. So, for people to misinterpret the judgment and say that Abure has been removed is completely unnecessary, and as I talk to you, the political parties have nominated Abure as their chairman. So, as it is we are going back to the constitution.

In all of these, how do you see the stance of INEC?

I can tell you that INEC is just trying to be diplomatic and using its administrative techniques to ensure they do not cause tension, unless the INEC is to be used to kill the LP

Do you think the party faithful would want the person of Abure to continue in office?

That is where the problem is and we can say that irrespective of who Abure is. As far as the constitution of the party is concerned, and he has been elected following the relevant provisions, then what can you do? Is Ahmed Tinubu not the President of Nigeria? What crises or allegations has he not faced? But yet, the constitution says he is the president of Nigeria. Can you say no? So, why are we eating from the centre of our mouths and talking from different sides of the mouth, while we keep assuming things? Why should we sit down in the comfort of our homes and assume Abure is out? Why should they have the belief that it must happen their way and that it must be them alone? Is Obi not working to contest for 2027 presidential election? Is Otti not a sitting governor? When the INEC failed to declare Otti, why did he insist? To the extent that he came to mobilise us to besiege the INEC office until he was declared. So, sometimes we have to remove sentiment when we seek to know the reality; ask them, if not because of sentiment, what offense Abure committed after suffering to bring him to the limelight. And when they talk of stakeholders, they are those who jumped from PDP in 2022. Some came from APGA and APC, after they had their primary elections or had been ditched. These are the stakeholders people talk about. Or is it the NASS members who have already pledged allegiance to APC? We knew all of them and how they came to LP and that is why none of them can say we have defrauded him of one naira. Some of them didn’t even have money when they came, and we gave them free tickets, and now we made them, and they are claiming stakeholders. Tell me how? And they are fighting those who made them stakeholders. What a shame.