By Aj. Dagga Tolar

With  the constituting of the National Transitional Committee (NTC), made up of 29 person and led by Senator Nenadi Usman and Darlington Nwokeocha as chairman and secretary respectively to provide a national leadership for the Labour Party (LP) at the Umuahia, hosted by the Governor of Abia state, Ameachi Otti as the most senior political office holder of the party. 

Can we now assume that the internal crisis that has engulfed the LP threatening to tear it apart at a period when it should be consolidating, and building on its 6 million plus votes at the last presidential polls, is now over. Can we also assume that the LP, a party formed by the Trade unions in the country is now positioned to give the necessary knock to the main ruling parties of the All People’s Congress (APC) and the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria. And that come the next General elections the working masses can really place any hope on the LP, vote it into party and expect the fortunes of the working masses to be turned around.

But first, how did the LP got itself into this fix to have Julius Abure, the erstwhile national chairman of the party refusing to step aside, is not unconnected to the fact that he has tasted of the honey pie that the LP was made to become and is therefore unwillingly to let it go. The LP for a long time became a host to “a gang of political profiteers who do not share any of the ideas of the labour movement in terms of improving the lot of the working masses”! Indeed there is no better term than the above to describe and characterise the leadership of the Labour Party. 

How and why did Abure initially made his way to the top of the party, from the office of the Assistant Secretary straight to the office of the chairman would not have been possible without support by the Labour bureaucrats themselves. Who from inception of the LP had determined and chosen the leadership of the party. The very ones, who were thrust and trusted with the task to build the party, have done nothing else than hold the party done to be nothing else than a milking cow to line their pockets, holding down the LP as a reserved ticket slot for sale for two categories of candidates. 

Those who front for leading candidates in the major bourgeois parties of either APC or PDP, ensuring that the LP does not become a threat to them. And the second group consist of individuals who lost out in these parties and are unable to compete with far richer billionaire members of the ruling class. This has been the history of the Labour Party from inception till date. Is there any hint that the narrative is about to change with the fight to the finish by the political commission of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its counterpart the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to reclaim the leadership of the party from Abure who was himself installed by the trade unions

Even under the so called directorship of a supposed leading egghead of the labour movement S.O.Z. Ejiofor the party’s fortunes were not any different. It explained why Adams Oshiomhole declined contesting under the LP, and ended up after 8 years in office and became party leader of the ruling APC. 

*THE NATIONAL CONGRESS*

With the NTC tasked with the assignment to conduct congress for the party from the Ward, LGA, State and National level of the party, this development must fully welcomed as a sort of victory signaling the end of the dominance of the Julius Abure led leadership of the party, given the argument put forward that his tenure had expired. 

But the point must also be made that what seems like a victory, and the exist of Abure is indeed a growing reduction of the influence of the trade unions’ leadership on the LP and that it is heading to a complete capture and dominance of its affairs by a host of strange bedfellows who trooped in from the PDP  and some from the APC to bid for ticket having lost out of reckoning or incapable of competing cash for cash with their fellow members of the millionaire and billionaire club in the main ruling class political parties. They are attracted by nothing else than by the fact of using it as a means of taking political power. 

The question to pose now is how far or what next for the LP and what task must be posed before Marxists from here on. Can the Labour Party still be retrieved to become a party of the working class. What opportunity does this journey to the national congress of the LP portend to change seekers and to the working masses. Can the political commissions of the Trade unions commence a process of mobilisation for workers to register and become active in the party, rather than just remaining on the lower rung of political participation as voters. Should they not actively aspire to own the party and struggle for the party to fully become a genuine representatives of the needs and interest of the workers and the lower classes of the masses  in the country.

The political Commission of the NLC & TUC must unite their effort & provide the necessary support for workers to join the LP. And should also strengthen its effort, along with allies, to field candidates in the coming nation convention of the party against the outright domination of the party by the right wing, bearing in mind that these opportunities could suddenly abandon the party, if a more favourable platform with which to win power suddenly emerges on the horizon for them.

This is the question that must be posed, and  all left leaning pro-labour organisations should be urged to orientate towards the LP and explore all of the existing current potentials both in building the LP and at the seem time reaching out to change seekers to join the party and explore all of the possibilities of canvassing for a socialist programme for the party, while also canvassing for a full embrace of the revolutionary ideas of Marxism and the need to build a party for revolution.

A reign of right wing politicians over the party is currently being prepared and put in place, by people who clearly are in the LP not necessarily for the interest of the working masses but simply for the opportunity to grab power. Anything short of a mobilising of the working masses to coming in their millions into the LP, and building the necessary fortress to shift the party to the left, then for sure, nothing fundamentally changes.

*THE OBIDIENT MOVEMENT & THE LABOUR PARTY*

Peter Obi has virtually become the main bride of the LP. To have garnered 6 million votes and contending the victory of APC’s candidate, Tinubu, up to the supreme court. He has succeeded in rallying support for the LP in so short a period. Like previously pointed out indicated that truly as conceived originally the LP can be built to take on the ruling class, it has taken a Peter Obi to demonstrate this possibility.

Yet the Obidient Movement doesn’t hide the fact that it is an independent unit, functions with a parallel structure outside and inside the LP. It continues to bid its quest for power around the credentials of the personality of Obi and does not hide its intention to completely take over the party as a means to winning political power. And we as it were will not take anything away from the criticism made of Obi and his refusal to break with neoliberal capitalism and fully embrace the ideas of socialism and which with the support of the working masses to take on the ruling class and end the domination of the  capitalist ideas. By so doing, the fortunes of the country would be turned  around and transformed, with governance defined by the interest of the working masses rather than that of big business. 

The above not withstanding there exists some form of concern that Peter Obi could leave the LP to either return to the PDP, if he is assured of the party’s ticket and that Atiku will not bid for it. However there is Goodluck Jonathan to contend with, who for the Northern ruling class will only be in office for a term having spend one earlier. But Obi is quick to dismiss this fear, when he states that “Yes, I would be here , and if anybody is coming for us to negotiate or to come together, he must tell me what his purposes. I will not join anybody for state capture or for winning the election. I want anybody to tell me how are we going to ensure that no child is left behind, how are we going to put those millions of out-of-school children back in school.” (https://saharareporters.com/2024/09/13/im-ready-be-vice-president-if-i-see-someone-who-will-perform-better-says-peter-obi?)

While Marxists share some of the sentiments from the above statement, we are completely in the know that the current path of neoliberalism adopted by the ruling elites in Nigeria including of Peter Obi is not capable in anyway of realising the above aspiration. Anything short a revolution to free the grip of both international capital and its domestic representative in the ruling class, makes such fanciful talk nothing else than an empty dream.

What can not be denied about the Obidient movement is that you have within its ranks; followers who are not attuned with the current state of the country and of course with the believe that things can be turned around. To find these elements of change seekers in the Labour party means also that Socialists must not leave them to their fate in the hands of the rhetoric of all it’s slogans to rescue Nigeria just on the assumed humane, humble nature of Peter Obi. Even if anchored on the principle of social democracy in today uni-polar world dominated by the US and NATO allies in Europe, it would not ultimately transform the lot of the working masses, moreso social democracy has long been on the retreat and shrinking. 

It means that in power it will also operate a government of a capitalist policies as dictated by the IMF/World Bank…under the false illusions frugality and an astute life by the rulers mitigate and solve the economic crisis. However,  the crisis is not simply a question of the leadership, the lifestyle of the leader or corruption. Corruption is merely a symptom  of the deeper crisis. It is the duty of Marxists to clarify this point to the working masses, and help bring about the needed socialist consciousness to the working masses, in its bid to ultimately build an independent working class political party. This explains, why we need to from inside the party launch a socialist platform and galvanize workers and change seekers to such a programme.

*THE NEED FOR A LEFT PLATFORM*

If there is anything to learn from the Obidient movement, it is the fact that Marxists must follow suit to carve a niche for themselves in the LP. Call it LP. Left/Left Caucus , such a formation must unite and act to insist of a social democratic/ and as well as a full Socialist Alternative programme as oppose to a LP on a right wing capitalist programme as currently represented by the main bourgeois ruling parties of the APC and the PDP

The left caucus should endeavour to organise a symposium to review both the state of the party and the task ahead of it as well as the state of the nation, and carry out the task of continuous political education in the ranks of the LP as to its task and how the working masses if organise can in reality come to power.

This is the only way forward, and it will also provide a means to connect with obedient movement and change seekers in the party rank to meet with ideas of Marxism directly with the intention of  building and strengthening the forces with which to truly build a revolutionary party.