THE chief spokesperson for the Obi-Datti campaign organisation, Yinusa Tanko, has said the embattled National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, discountenanced the advice of the party’s presidential candidate in last year’s general elections, Peter Obi, for an all-inclusive convention.
Speaking on a television programme, Tanko said the current crisis rocking LP could have been avoided if the leadership, under Abure, had heeded the advice of Obi and other well-meaning members and stakeholders of the party, insisting that the recently national convention of the party that returned Abure was not all-inclusive.
According to him: “Obi has made a concerted effort in trying to intervene at any point we have this particular issue and trying to improve. When the issue of the national convention came up, he suggested to the national chairman that because we are bigger now, we need to have a wider consultation.
“Meet with responsible and interested people, such as TUC and NLC, stakeholders, the Obidient group- young generation people who are interested in seeing Nigeria work, leaders who have different ideas that can midwife us into a greater height.
“All of these were the suggestions that Obi made, and not only did he make those suggestions, he practicalised them, because he met with members of the National Assembly.
“Obi met with the leadership of the party recently in Asaba, trying to give them ideas on how he thinks certain things could be done and you could improve our situation. But, of course, you know how politics is, sometimes people may be trying to encourage people, but they do something different.
“You can only take a horse to the river, but you cannot force it to drink water. So, that’s exactly what Obi has done; he has done so greatly to see if we can find a solution to some of the problems we find ourselves in.”
Tanko also stated that while Abure had the right to contest the national chairmanship position again, it was only proper that the right things were done by opening the door for more people to be part of the process, adding that Abure went outside an initial agreement to have an all-inclusive national convention, which ought to start from the ward, local government and state levels before the national level.
He insisted that the convention recently held in Nnewi, Anambra State, that returned Abure as the party’s leader, did not conform with that agreement, and, therefore, was not acceptable to everyone within the party.
When asked if the crisis in the party could be a problem for Obi in the next election, Tanko said Obi was a brand of his own and he and others would always move with him wherever he went.
Recall that at the convention of Labour Party on March 27 in Nnewi, Abure was re-elected as the national chairman for a second term by a unanimous affirmation of delegates, despite strong opposition by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.
