From Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Chairman of the Labour Party in Delta State, Chief Tony Ezeagwu, has said the party will win next year’s governorship election in the state as well as the presidency. He said the presidential candidate, Peter Obi has become a blessing for the party particularly in Delta State where he claimed that everyone is clamouring for the former governor of Anambra State to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari. In this interview, Ezeagwu spoke on what attracted Mr. Obi to the Labour Party ahead of other opposition parties.

What has been the reaction in Delta State since Peter Obi emerged as the presidential candidate of Labour Party?

We give glory to God. I am sure it is not happening in other places more than the way it is happening in Delta. Everybody in Delta State is facing Labour Party.

What was your membership strength before Obi’s coming and what is it now?

You cannot compare what our strength was before he came in. As he came in, in fact, our member strength has doubled up to 100 folds more than what it used to be. I tell you, there is no place you go in Delta State now you don’t see multitudes clamouring for Peter Obi and Labour Party. So, it is a complete movement.

The other day, the vice presidential candidate of PDP and governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa made a veiled reference to what is happening nationwide, the bandwagon among the youths who seem to have embraced the Obi message. He said they should not be carried away by the euphoria of the moment. How would you react to that?

Well you see, every human being has that kind of attitude of defending himself. What he is trying to do is to encourage himself. He would not tell you that he is defeated already. He would say things that would make people say he has confidence in what he is doing because I know that every human being knows that what is happening in Nigeria now is different from what has ever happened before. Even in Buhari’s time, it was not as much as this. You can imagine that all over the country, even in the North, you see people clamouring to go and register. They only want to register because of Obi. So eventually, whatever anybody likes, let the person say but at the end of the day after running, we shall count the mileage.

In Delta, do you believe that the kind of structure you have will deliver your candidates at the ballot?

It is not far fetched, we have the structure in Delta; this is the list of our local government chairmen and their contacts. This is what we are now giving to the new entrants. Our structure has been there but you cannot compare it to what is happening now. This also cascade down to the ward level because when you go to any local government, from there, they refer to the appropriate ward. That is how political parties run.

Apart from the Obi factor, what is the selling point of Labour Party in Delta?

The issue is that Labour Party is not a money bag party. This is a party that believes in human beings. The logo of our party is ‘Mama, Papa and Pickin’. That shows that it is people-oriented. The attraction there is that people have seen, you can imagine that people who went to contest primaries in APC and PDP were giving as much as N3 million to one delegate. But people did the same thing here in Labour Party without giving money except giving them drinks and water. And they did it happily. I am sure that that is what Obi saw in Labour Party because there are many political parties outside PDP and APC. You know we still have 18 political parties; if you remove APC and PDP, we still have 16. If there was nothing in Labour Party, he would not have faced LP. I am assuring you that Labour Party is intact, and with the influx of persons, the sky will be our limit. I am telling you, we are delivering the governor of Delta State come 2023.

Before 2019 and downward, you were almost like the face of opposition in Delta as chairman of the party fielding the governorship candidate of the opposition, Great Ogboru. Now going to 2023, will that opposition status change for you?

As far as I am concerned, like I told you earlier, you can see the influx of persons. What is happening now is a complete tsunami and definitely, we are going to bounce back. We will go beyond where we were before. With what we have on ground now, the structure, the human beings, I am sure nobody is going to equate us.

But what was the problem back then with Ogboru as candidate?

With Ogboru as candidate, let me tell you something you people fail to realise, the issue is, it is no longer business as usual. You saw Ekiti election, did you see anybody running with ballot box? Those days, some persons in Delta felt that if they get PDP ticket, they can go to their house and sleep; the election was won already because of manipulations here and there. Today, it is no longer business as usual, that is the only thing this 9th National Assembly has achieved and Nigerians are happy. If you watch the rate in which people are going out to register now, they are not even registering much because Obi is contesting; they are registering because they know their votes would count this time around.

What is the agenda of LP for Nigeria should you win the presidential election?

Our agenda is not far fetched. Our agenda is to give Nigerians a better life, ensure that insurgency stops, make sure that IPOB stops and know that Nigerians are one. We are going to bring every segment, every tribe together, and at the end of the day, there will be no discrimination between Christians and Muslims, no discrimination between Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba. We will bring Nigeria back to what it used to be. You know that in this country, we had a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket, Abiola and Kingibe. And it worked. Nobody cared because then we knew religion was not a problem. But today, put a Muslim and Muslim together, let Jagaban try it and he will get no vote because they know that he is trying to further divide Nigeria. The primary thing we are going to do is to restore peace to Nigeria, put food on people’s table. You know most of these agitations are as a result of the suffering of the people. You know that the idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Nigerians are suffering, nothing good is coming out of the present government. We are assuring you that when LP comes to power, Nigerians will be happy.

One argument against Obi particularly from the PDP is that they lost elections in Anambra when he came into the PDP and lost the last presidential election when he was running mate. They feel that he does not have the capacity to win…

Well, that one is not far fetched. They say tell me your friends and I will tell you who you are. He could be there but because of those he is following, I don’t think he can subdue those persons. That means it is still going to be business as usual. So at the end of the day, people are not even doing it because they know he is only playing a second fiddle, he is not at the helm of affairs, even if Atiku had won. Osibanjo today, what has he been able to do? Nothing. As a vice president, you don’t have much except what the president asks you to do. So, people would not have because of Obi voted for the people they don’t want to.

What is the level of LP merger talks with opposition parties of like minds?

I think for now, the talk is going on smoothly, and we are confident that at the end of the day, something good must come out of it.