Abure being sponsored to destabilise LP – NLC Commission Deputy President, Nadubuaku

Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku is the Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Political Commission. In this interview with ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS, Ndubuaku, who is also the national Secretary General of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions, addresses the crisis rocking the Labour Party, why the NLC refused to recognise the Julius Abure leadership and the fate of LP presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi. Excerpts:

Are you in support of the Otti and Obi-led caretaker committee dragging Abure to the Supreme Court, following his Appeal Court victory?

This propaganda machine that Abure has can distort anything. If you are talking about going to the Supreme Court, the first thing you need to ask yourself is: what is the judgment? You need to see the judgment that you will take to the Supreme Court. If you look at even what they put up, the Appeal Court says that the issue of leadership of the LP at the lower courts was an academic exercise, which means that it shouldn’t have been in the first place. That means that the whole thing about Abure being the leader of the LP, in that judgment, is not an issue. So, we only waited to see and study the CTC before taking action. They also mentioned that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction or have any business with the determination of the leadership of a party. So, if the Appeal Court says that a lower court does not have any business with the leadership of a party, then the Appeal Court itself should not also have any business with the leadership. So, they cannot make a pronouncement on an issue they say a lower court does not have any business with.

Now, the matter takes us back to a judgment that cannot be appealed, which is the consent judgment still in place. It has not been vacated and it cannot be vacated because it’s a consent judgment. It was not inherited by Abure but entered into and signed by him. So, since we know that Abure is being sponsored by the people who want to destabilise the Labour Party, we also know there is a limit to which you can attempt to destroy or succeed in destroying a party, especially if that party belongs to an institution. This is not a party that some people got together to establish so, maybe when they die, you will not know who owns or founded it. This is not a party like any other party where you don’t have institutional membership. This is a party that has its owners as permanent and not individual members in the organs of the party.

The LP leadership was emphatic that NLC’s role as founder stopped the moment the party was registered. Why are you still struggling to take control of the party?

Yes, we don’t have control. But we are constitutionally permanent members of the decision-making body of the party that must be carried along. The constitution says that the president of the NLC and Trade Union Congress and the secretary of NLC and TUC are permanent members of the National Executive Committee at the national and state levels. So even if every other person does not exist, these permanent members will always remain. Do you know what it means to have permanent membership? That is, they are not supposed to be elected. It is only the Labour Party that has that constitution. On top of that permanent membership, we have a consent judgment that says that we should also appoint members to the BOT as chairman. That also has not been vacated. So no matter how they run around it or what pronouncement they do, all these things are going together. Unfortunately, the certificate of the party that everybody is dragging is with the parent body.

Are you saying the certificate that birthed LP is still with the NLC?

Certainly! The certificate is in our safe and no court will say bring the certificate and give it to a Labour Party. This is because we own the Labour Party. The workers are the founders, promoters and backbone. That’s why it’s called Labour. You can’t even change the name. Who are the Labourers? Again, this is not the only country that has a Labour Party. The United Kingdom also has. So, you can’t say this is a strange arrangement or why should the Organised Labour form a party.

Are you not afraid that the perennial face-off between the NLC and Abure amid several court cases may lead to a situation where LP wouldn’t have candidates for the 2027 election?

Don’t worry. We are there. You will soon hear from us. We are waiting for this judgment (Supreme Court) so we will now see the ‘mago-mago’ they want to do. You can also see the struggle between [Dele] Farotimi and the system. So we are waiting to see how this mago-mago will play in this one that belongs to the workers. They can play games with Farotimi. Let us see how they play games with Nigerian workers.

Are you implying that Farotimi’s case was politicised?

Of course. How else can we describe it? You saw the way they came after him and breached all the rules to punish him for speaking the truth. So you will know that it is (a case of) them against us. But in that particular case, it was them against one person. Now they want to destroy what belongs to the Nigerian workers. So we want to watch them to see how they would do it. We know the people behind Abure. As I speak to you, I don’t know whether you are aware that Abure has been indicted by the Inspector General of Police. Are you aware?

Is that a recent indictment?

Yes. It has not been vacated. They never charge him to court. There was an indictment letter formally written to that effect. But they refused to prosecute him. We are talking about the same Abure that forged court documents. We are watching to see how the court will make pronouncements and attempt to force him on the Labour Party. This is a man that the only governor in his party has rejected.

But the Abure-led exco claimed Otti was still with them.

Who is with them? Was he not the same person who set up a national caretaker committee and said Abure’s tenure had ended? Look, for him (Otti) to have rejected Abure and set up a caretaker committee means he doesn’t accept Abure as his chairman anymore. The leader of the party, Peter Obi, also does not accept Abure as his chairman. The committee was set up for us to move forward. Abure is not accepted by the permanent members in his NEC and NWC, which are the NLC and TUC. He’s not accepted. This is a man that is not even accepted by the organic movement called the Obidient Movement in his party. Above all, the Organised Labour, the people whose name your party is answering, has also said they no longer want you as chairman. So, virtually every stakeholder, and because of what he’s doing, even his elected officials in the national and state houses of assembly, are leaving the party for him.

Is this not looking like a case of cutting the nose to spite the face?

That’s what I’m telling you. So how does that person, if he has any sense, still stay and claim he’s the chairman of the party? Who are the people remaining in the party he is chairing? If you have any integrity left, shouldn’t you be thinking of leaving? Everybody is saying you cannot be our chairman.

Speculations have been doing the rounds that Abure is allegedly being sponsored by the APC. Do you share the same conviction?

Of course, you don’t need anybody to tell you that. If he’s not being sponsored by the people in power, how come the Inspector General of Police has written to the Attorney General to prosecute the case of this man we have investigated and you refuse? How come his national treasurer sent all the documents to the EFCC and even took the commission to court for refusing to prosecute him? They still refused to prosecute him despite all the documents and evidence that he forged the signature of a dead man as well as that of a judge. So how do you explain that somebody is not backing him? I don’t want to mention any names. Somebody must tell us who is behind this man who is now making him look larger than the government.

With all the lieutenants Peter Obi had lost, including the defected LP lawmakers, wouldn’t it count against him in 2027?

Until they won their elections, who were those lawmakers? They are nobody. Have you forgotten that they all rode on the back of Peter Obi and the Obidient movement? So they were nothing but lightweight politicians. These were people who lost opportunities and were denied tickets in the APC and the PDP. So they fell back on the Labour Party. When Peter Obi came on board, they were fortunate to sail through. Otherwise, many of them would have been rigged out if it were not for the strength of the people around those areas.

With the crisis and internal wrangling witnessed so far, do you still fancy LP chances ahead of the 2027 elections?

We have no doubt. Don’t forget that the LP has been winning elections since the time of former Governor Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State. I hope you remember that Oshiomhole also rode on the ticket of the LP before moving to the Action Congress of Nigeria. The problem is that people don’t understand. This LP you are talking about is the Nigerian workers. So it is not any party that you can kill off like that. It’s also not a party that can withdraw their voting bloc or supporters so long as the Labour mandate is there and the permanent members of the Labour Party, NLC and TUC, are there to give instructions to the members. Let me tell you something. If the NLC President (Joe) Ajaero meets with NEC today and announces that tomorrow, for whatever justifiable reason, no ship or plane will load or that no school will open, it will happen. See, the only people who could challenge the army in the country today are the working class, not politicians. So if Ajaero gives any LP candidate our mandate, the workers will vote massively for him. The only reason we still have bad leadership today is because our votes don’t count. It’s not that we don’t know how to elect our leaders. It’s because the process of electing leaders has been hijacked by thieves. Therefore, two years is enough time for us to correct this wrong. For ourselves and our children, the movement to save democracy must be founded on our votes-must-count.

Why is it difficult for the NLC to forgive Abure and move on?

Forgive who? Forgive a criminal who should be in jail? Does he even know what integrity stands for? The problem Abure has is that he doesn’t know the kind of people he is dealing with. If this is APC or PDP where everybody that has a case with the EFCC or has even gone to jail and comes out remains in the party, it would have been a different thing. But for crying out loud, this is a party that has key people like Otti, Obi, Ajaero, Osifo and others. The core leadership of the LP is made up of people who have shown transparency and accountability over the years.

Peter Obi cannot sit at the same table as Abure because he is tainted. I don’t know how else to describe him. Abure is a time bomb waiting to happen. Anybody that reconciles with him, when he blows, it will affect the person. What are we going to be preaching tomorrow if we reconcile with somebody like Abure? For someone who has the party certificate to reconcile with who? This is the party we founded. A man just came from nowhere and wanted to hijack it. Now you are calling us to reconcile with him? For what exactly? Even if Ajaero considers the thought of reconciliation, he will still call people like us to get our contributions. If Abure does juju to hypnotise Obi and Ajaero, it won’t work.