By ANIEBO NWAMU
Whenever I have received a call from any of my friends or colleagues asking why some Labour Party lawmakers and former candidates have switched to other parties, my reply has always been the same: I don’t know. Like every other member of the party in Enugu State, I have yet to learn of any tangible reason they have for abandoning the vehicle that brought them to power and glory. Even the leader of our party, His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, has expressed disgust at these people’s ingratitude to the people who had put their faith and trust in them.
The decampees from Enugu State, however, have been too few and too lilliputian to affect the strength of the Labour Party: they could be counted on the fingertips. None of them has decamped with their followers. Not even with their former coordinators! I’m sure even their wives and children will not join them or vote for their newfound idols in future elections.
The grapevine has it that some of them were reimbursed their campaign expenses and more — to the tune of billions of naira — and then given a brief to spread hate and discord within our beloved party with a view to dismembering it. It’s a tough assignment, a herculean task which nobody, no matter how much money at his disposal, can accomplish. They forget that money could not save their old but newfound party in 2023.
They have failed right from the outset: the noise that has accompanied the “dumping” of Labour Party by some of the party’s lawmakers and former candidates has been generated mainly on social media by sycophants of the decampees as they struggle to convince media consumers that their principals’ motives were not selfish. But they have failed abysmally because everyone knows the truth about the underhand deals. Enugu LP is too big to be destabilized. Not while an Ideke (Senator Okey Ezea) is still standing.
The betrayal of the party by elected lawmakers should, admittedly, raise eyebrows due to the circumstances under which they were elected in 2023. Our people decided to effect a change in the polity by voting out candidates in the PDP long known for vote thievery, poor performance and disrespect for the electorate. It was their courage and determination to change the status quo in 2023 that enabled a relatively unknown LP to win an overwhelming majority of elections conducted in the state, even though a few were later reversed by Nigeria’s inefficient and corrupt electoral and justice systems. Some state assembly lawmakers were bribed (with N30m each) to leave our party even before the conclusion of judicial processes.
Our party’s structure has not been scratched one bit, but a mark of treachery follows each of the decampees. They claimed they consulted widely, but they consulted nobody except perhaps a few acolytes with whom they’ve shared their bribe money obviously stolen from our common treasury.
Neither the party nor the people wronged them in any way. Our people who, out of love and desire for change, stood by them, supported them and voted for them were not LP members alone. But due to their greed and selfishness they failed to show respect for or gratitude to the ordinary people who invested their hopes and energies on them. They abandoned the party of the people without as much as saying goodbyes. How else could traitors be described?
Our people across the country should rest assured that LP remains sure-footed, unshakable and resolute. Our party won’t miss the losers — those who could be bought with filthy lucre and fake promises. All party offices in Enugu State from the ward to state levels are occupied today. One or two officers who went back to lick their own vomit (parties that had persecuted them before LP gave them refuge) have been replaced. And, in a short while, activities leading to the conduct of congresses and a national convention shall commence nationwide. With the benefit of hindsight, the party will be more careful in the registration of new members.
In 2026 we shall elect formidable candidates for all elective positions across the country. Things will not be rushed as they were in 2023, and no potential betrayer or gatecrasher will be given a chance again.
All LP faithful and the Obidient Movement are enjoined to continue to show loyalty to and support our leaders, especially His Excellency Peter Obi, acting national chairman Senator Nenadi Usman, and the party’s National Executive Council. Whatever political arrangements that might be made with other opposition parties shall not affect LP’s identity or its mission to make a new Nigeria POssible.
I wish the decampees good luck in their new parties. After all, switching of political parties has been happening in all parties from the early days of the Fourth Republic. In Enugu State, some politicians are currently in their fourth and fifth parties. What I won’t tolerate is any attempt to pull LP down or smear the image of its gladiators. I promise them hell, if they did!
Come rain or sunshine, I remain here in Labour Party. I remain in the party through which our people carried out a successful revolution in Enugu State. I’ll forever remain grateful to our people and never take them for granted.
Connect with Aniebo: +234-8054100220
