New Telegraph Thursday Back Page of March 28, 2024

By Ike Abonyi. 

“Future generations are not going to ask what political party were you in. They are going to ask what did you do about it when you knew the glaciers were melting." -- Martin Sheen

In the above quote, America’s famous actor, Martin Sheen, explains how leadership responsibility boils down to the people, not political parties. Parties have a secondary role in legacy building. and statecraft. For this reason, perhaps, history has remained blind to the activities of party leaders since Nigeria's independence in 1960. Political parties are formed for the primary purpose of grabbing power and impacting greatly on the populace.

All those who hullabaloo and tumult that the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi's silence on the crisis in his party is not good for him should study the loud impact of silence, often louder than noise, especially when you have done the needful. In some cases, as it is with Obi, the proverb applies that speech is silver, while silence is golden. Still, waters often run deeper as the empty vessel makes the loudest noise. When silence is golden it must allow for peaceful reflections and a clear understanding of issues at stake.

Peter Obi, the phenomenal politician of this dispensation, has been interpreted by many from varying angles, as a self-centered politician who only thinks of himself, a stingy stand-alone politician, and such other terms. But none has issues with the content in him on any topic. When Obi takes a stand on any issue, even if you disagree, you will find no fault in his explanation and why he chose the path he is taking.

When Obi was in the All Progressives Grand Alliance, party leaders disagreed with him on several issues but he chose his path and remained there until they saw reasons and returned to his path. As he left APGA and joined the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, some rascals rose, swearing to rubbish him by refusing to accord him his due as a former Governor and leader of the party in Anambra State. They aligned forces with anti-Obi elements in Abuja and other South-East states vowing to disgrace and prevent him from realizing his ambition in PDP. As they were deviously working to stop him, Obi the outsider, was nominated as the running mate by Atiku Abubakar, the 2019 presidential flag bearer. It was hell let loose as the PDP principalities in the Southeast opposed it.

They mobilized to humble him at the polls, aggregating forces with his successor, Governor Willie Obiano, who had assured ruling Muhammadu Buhari that an electoral tsunami was rising, just to sink Obi in his home state. Obiano promised Buhari more than 25 percent of the votes in his state. But in the 2019 polls, both Buhari and other South-East leaders were shocked that Obi swept the entire region, [Anambra alone recorded more than 95 percent, the highest percentage of votes by any state for PDP in the whole country].

Ahead of the 2023 polls, detractors renewed the shoot-Obi-down machinations, and some political scoundrels allied with the Iyorchia Ayu-led PDP National Executive. Their progenitor, then-Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, had listed Obi as one character that must be barred from either presidential or VP tickets in the party. Some political humbugs and masqueraders in Anambra were mobilized to make good the stop-Obi threat.

To some extent, they succeeded in frustrating Obi out of the PDP and he made his way to the Labour Party which was at that point barely showing nominal presence to ostensibly manifest the plurality of our party system. In all the PDP intrigues Obi never uttered a word of place as he focused on the issues.

As he joined the Labour Party with his phenomenal and prodigious support group called the Obidient Movement, coined from his name, the Labour Party's electoral value transformed into a national and formidable third force. One had ruled the country for 16 years and another eight years and was still counting. But Obi was able to jolt all to the extent that in their votes allocations, they had to put him in close third position to reduce his impact. The vote manipulators were unable to stop the fact that in Lagos and Abuja, he was the outright winner in the election, showing demographically who he was in the national space.

We have given this background to set the stage to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Labour Party about which some political watchers feel that Obi has not been in the fray enough. Of course, this is not true.

What is clear and applicable with Obi is that as an issue-driven politician, he is hardly loud, he pushes his points but strays away from the usual noise that characterizes attention-seeking politicians.

It is as unhidden as a seven-month-old pregnancy. The Obidient Movement is the heart and mind of what the Labour Party became from May 30, 2022, when Obi picked the LP presidential ticket. LP without the Obidient can be likened to a soccer field without balls. With due respect to some persons, before Obi entered into the Labour Party, all of their national officers were political tyros.

Members of the Obidient Movement were drawn from all the political parties including the ruling APC and a lot of non-partisan Nigerians who were galvanized by the Peter Obi message. Most of them joined LP and got their voter cards purposely to vote for Obi. Neither the Labour Party nor Abure promised a new Nigeria. It was Peter Obi.

Having lost the election through the abracadabra of the Mahmoud Yakubu-led Independent National Election Commission, INEC, and still believing in Obi's message and in the hope that a new Nigeria is possible with Obi, many Nigerians decided to stick to the Labour Party. Rather than welcome them, the party rookies would not open the door. This is the origin of the ongoing crisis in the Labour Party. In various ways and in vain, Obi tried to let all critical stakeholders appreciate this vital point of recognizing the new national status of the party by accommodating diversity.

Given the enhanced status, it is only natural to expect that the critical stakeholders, those elected on the platform of the party in the two chambers of the National Assembly, their sole governor in Abia State, members of the Obidient movement, and the labour unions who by history facilitated the birthing of the Labour Party, should be accommodated. But selfish elements would not hear any such thing, all they want is for the status quo in the leadership to remain while they keep enjoying the benefits of the numbers from outside.

Yes, legally they may not be violating any law, having amended the law to suit their parochial interests, but how realistic does it sound that a new house would be swept by an old broom where a new broom exists? Injection of new blood to mix with the old is the ideal and reasonable thing to do and should be endorsed by all. Going ahead without carrying their new size along opens them up to two things, either they have been bought by interests determined to undermine Obi's political interests or they are carried away by the apparent electoral fortunes of LP and are unwilling to let go or both.

I have taken time this week to highlight the political kind of person Peter Obi is to guide clueless LP elements and indeed gullible public properly about him. The divine grace that he enjoys helps him to make minimal mistakes in his political journey. When he is not fighting the way expected of normal politicians, even when he is being undermined, should not be seen as a weakness. Anybody who watched Obi govern Anambra State with all the big guns around should know that weakness cannot be ascribed to him in any way.

Since 2014 when Peter Obi left office as Governor his political career has been in ascendancy. Ten years after winning the Best Governor and Governor of the Decade, Obi is still winning awards as the Politician of the Year. His political leadership has swelled in an unprecedented manner. As an opposition voice today, Obi has remained credible with his constructive and issue-driven criticisms.

Already, the fact that Obi is being perceived as unhappy in the Labour Party has drastically reduced the public rating of the party in the political space while his image continues to soar. It’s in the interest of the Labour Party to heed the voice of reason and not follow the regrettable path taken by APGA and PDP. It’s foolhardy and hare-brained for the recalcitrant,  ostensibly driven by selfish motives to think that they can move forward well without the Obidients and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. If NLC was handy to contain the intrigues of Lamidi Apapa last year, why should they be unneeded now for a role? NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero may have been uncanny and unreal in the way he handles workers' welfare negotiations with the government. However, this move to have a say in the future of the Labour Party falls clearly within his jurisdiction and cannot be seen as a needless effort.

Good political party leaders would love to be poor and see their party rich than to be rich and endanger their party. Perhaps, the option left for the Obidient and the NLC camps, if finally marginalised in the Labour Party, is not to bemoan, but to unite. If corrupt and selfish unite among themselves to constitute a force for their knavish acts, honest and good heads should do the same for good purposes. If the LP leadership is afraid to share officeholding or accommodate others, it’s because fear of leaving office corrupts more than power.  Let it be put on record that the Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi, is factually not silent on the stand-off in the LP, but only refuses to be a rabble-rouser. God help us.