One of the leaders of the Labour Party (LP), Professor Pat Utomi has given reasons why Mr Julius Abure should no longer aspire to be national chairman of the party.
Utomi, speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, on Thursday, premised his argument on what he called a national point of view.
On why Abure should cease being chairman, Utomi described as awkward a situation where the party chairman, Abure; Mr Clement Ojukwu supposed to be elected the deputy chairman, and party leader, Mr Peter Obi are all Southerners.
He said Abure would cease to be chairman of the party as soon as a working committee is set up, adding that it would make sense for Abure to contest to be chairman again.
On the crisis between the NLC and Labour Party, he said the push by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and well-meaning leaders of the party is to have a Labour Party that is national in its outlook as well as own their party.
Utomi said the NLC was right to want to take back its party, pointing to a consent judgment that Mr Femi Falana, SAN, obtained months before the last general election.
He stressed the judgment affirmed NLC’s ownership of the party after which a convention was meant to be convened to have a new leadership of the Labour Party (LP).
Utomi explained: “Basically, what is happening is that the NLC wants to take back its party. The other is trying to make sure the party is National.
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“What they had that they called a convention where Abure was supposed to have been elected and then Clement Ojukwu was supposed to have been elected his deputy.
“What can be more awkward for a country where the party chairman is a southerner, the deputy chairman is a southerner, the leader and presidential candidate of the party is a southerner? Does that make any sense at all?
“What was required was for serious minded leaders to quietly go and talk to everybody to come to an understanding. Unfortunately, people began to run to press conferences and once that begins to happen, egos get in the way and all of that.
“This is not about Peter Obi. It is about a system that will help Nigeria work. Peter Obi is tangential to the matter. He is the leader of the party, right now. That is the tradition in a presidential system. The candidate of the party continues to be the leader until another candidate is elected.
“To the best of my knowledge, once the working committee is set up, Abure will cease to be chairman of the party. He can run if he wants to be run but from a national point of view, it doesn’t make sense that he runs.
“So, it is a very simple problem that I am sure, by the grace of God, can be resolved. I have been talking to all the parties and everybody respects the views that I have. So, we are going to sit down and sort it all out.
“Before the election, Femi Falana got a consent judgment that NLC owns the Labour party then it was expected that within months there would be a convention to have new leadership of the Labour Party. I was physically present, Abure was there.
“I addressed the political commissions of the NLC with all representatives of 36 states present and we reached this Accord, before the election. That was what led to the adoption of Labour Party.
“The idea was that immediately after the election, implementing what Femi Falana had gotten from the court will be disruptive with the executive that was there. When the election was over, Labour started talking of implementing that judgment.
“That is what has happened. Naturally, the people there found that they had become more powerful, because of the momentum that the election brought, the Obidient movement and that, the inclination is to want to enjoy the power the more but like I said to them, Nigeria must always surpass personal interest.”
TheWitness
