The name ‘Labour Party’ is usually adopted by political parties across the globe, that are linked more to democratic socialism. Such parties are traditionally allied with trade unions, labour movements or progressive alliances. Labour Parties are quite popular in strong democracies such as the UK where it has produced outstanding government leaders like Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and now Keir Starmer. But in a few developing societies, where democracy is yet to be institutionalized, some politicians are now known to seethe Labour Party as a platform for gaining power only to acquire personal gains. Nigeria’s Labour Party has displayed this tendency since 2023 when many candidates who had no progressive background surprisingly won elections through the party’s platform. 

Last week, a large crowd of the most credible faction of the party approached the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to declare their authentic leadership in line with the decision of the Supreme Court that only a political party can determine such internal political matter. The group which showed up at INEC included the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Ahmed. Governor Alex Oti of Abia state the party’s only current state governor as well as many other strong members of the party were also part of the team that visited the electoral body for the same purpose. One would have thought that the show of strength by the group would have persuaded other members to fall in line but that hardly happens in Nigeria where politicians cherish the act of disputing issues for life.

Julius Abure, the former National Chairman of the LP has a group of rather inconsequential supporters who are yet to appreciate the futility of refusing to know when an era ends. They have continued to issue press statements rejecting the popular position so as to hold-on to power. In other climes, Abure who is himself a lawyer would not encourage the unending damage to the party’s image. More than a year ago, Oluchi Opara, the party’s National Treasurer, accused Abure, of squandering N3billion out of the N3.5billion raised for the 2023 election campaigns. Rather than step aside for an independent audit team to clear him of the allegation, he got the party to set up a disciplinary committee which suspended Opara for six months, for making allegations against the national chairman of the party. 

To establish clearly that Nigeria does not have a real Labour Party, let’s compare what happened last week with the UK’s Labour Party.  The story that way was that the UK British Police in Avon and Somerset arrested a Labour Parliamentarian, Dan Norris, on suspicion of sexual offences and misconduct in a public office. As a result, MP Norris was immediately placed on suspension by the party to reflect its zero tolerance for corruption. Aptly put, Norris was still under investigation when a suspension notice was entered against him just as he also lost his position as party whip in the House of Commons. Whereas the punishment would appear hasty, the Labour Party which claims to belong to the masses and the working class cannot afford to have a legislator that can be accused of such criminal offences. In other words, any politician wanting to stand for election under LP’s platform must be conscious of the party’s high moral standards.

In Nigeria on the other hand, the holder of the top most office of the LP was over a year ago reported to have mismanaged over N3.5 billion raised from the party’s sale of nomination forms for the 2023 general elections. According to the National Treasurer of the party who is best positioned to know the facts, “apart from the proceeds of the sale of forms from his home state of Edo – which was diverted to Mr Abure’s private accounts, he only declared N55 million to me as Treasurer, of the over N3.5 billion raised, pocketing the rest for himself.” Till today, the public has not been told what was done to the suspect and no effort was made by the executive committee of the party to publish the party’s expenditures that could dispel wrong allegations. Being a criminal matter, no one has heard of any progress report by the law enforcement agencies on the subject. Yet, the case concerns a Labour Party that ought to be more transparent than capitalist inclined parties.

Another reason why Nigerians cannot hold the LP in high esteem is the unexpected cross-carpeting perpetuated by its elected office holders more than any other opposition party. About five months ago when no less than 6 members of the National Assembly elected under the platform of the LP defected, the party cried out in vain for the seats of the legislators to be declared vacant. Frustrated, the LP opened a ‘Hall of Shame’ register for the particular lawmakers or any lawmaker or elected officer of the party who engages in fraudulent act of defection without first dropping the mandate gotten under the ticket of the party.

But why are LP legislators engaging in what the party calls ‘Jumpology’ – an ideology of the jumping of political merchants and opportunists from one party to the other, in disregard to the enabling laws and without any ideological leaning. 

The claim that several crises in the LP can justify the carpet crossing hobby by many of its members is not a strong point. To start with, even the ruling party has its own challenges – one of its founding fathers recently moved to another party. Indeed, all Nigerian political parties are the same because the movements by politicians which are happening across board are uniform and are informed by the strong desire to join which ever platform appears more stable and supported in a given location. Political crises are thus not the most persuasive reasons for defection; if they were, everyone would have since moved. The fact that the LP which has lost many members to other parties, has itself received defectors to its own fold in Abia, its area of strength is instructive. The truth therefore is that Nigeria’s political system operates in a mercantilist industry.

Many Nigerians believe that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and its predecessor, the Peoples Democratic, PDP are two sides of the same coin. Consequently, many looked forward with excitement to the Labour Party winning the 2023 election. That however did not happen making us all to imagine that the LP will be the authentic opposition party that would put the government on its toes to ensure good governance. Painfully, the elected LP members did not only fail to live up to expectation, they also generally colluded with the capitalists by being active participants in the negatives of the Assembly. They pocketed their share of luxury official vehicles at a time of the nation’s economic vulnerability and left no one in doubt that they were an integral part of the opulence of the ruling class and were thus uninterested in helping to salvage the nation from political extortion. 

While it is true that many of the ills of the LP are also perpetuated by other parties, no one expected that the party would not be different from other politicians. On the issue of court judgments for example, it is a matter for regret that labour politicians are leading others in refusing to understand court judgments and indeed actively misinforming the public on the exact pronouncements by the judiciary. This was probably why the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) had to openly condemn the Abure-led LP for rejecting the apex court’s ruling which ‘explicitly dismissed Abure’s cross-appeal seeking judicial endorsement of his leadership claim.’ The writers are disappointed that rather than stepping down, Abure has continued to operate as chairman, deepening divisions and confusion within the party.

It is time for Nigerians to recognize the unfortunate collusion of the political class and aggressively stand up against antidemocratic practices by any of them. First, our judiciary needs to cut off the undue room previously given to politicians to judicialize our politics. We all know that no Nigerian political party has been so overwhelmed to warrant defections from any of them. Therefore, political office holders especially legislators who defect should be compelled to step down from office without delay as the constitution directs. In the case of leadership tussles, INEC which is empowered to regulate political parties should promptly reject impostors, sit-tight leaders and all those prompted by outside forces to take-over their parties so as to destabilize such parties.