In an interview with Arise News, Senator Nenadi Usman, Chairman of the Labour Party Caretaker Committee, addressed the internal crisis shaking the foundation of the party. She explained that the situation stems from greed and the refusal of certain individuals to relinquish power or follow due electoral processes. According to her, rather than fostering internal democracy, these leaders have clung to authority without conducting the necessary congresses to renew their mandates.
Senator Usman emphasized that a major flaw in the party’s administration was the abandonment of the constitutional process of organizing congresses—starting from the ward level, through local government and state levels, to a national convention. “You cannot just hold onto power and ignore the processes that legitimize your leadership,” she said, blaming the leadership’s refusal to do so for the party’s current disarray. She insisted that the caretaker committee was constituted to correct these anomalies and steer the party back to constitutional order.
Responding to claims by Julius Abure, the suspended party chairman, that she was not a legitimate party member and therefore unfit to act within the party, Usman clarified her status. She firmly stated that she is a card-carrying member of the Labour Party and presented her party card on air to back her claim. This, she said, nullifies any suggestion that she lacks the authority to help steer the party during its crisis period.
She also addressed the criticisms often levied at the Labour Party, especially during the 2023 presidential elections, that the party lacked a proper grassroots structure. Usman explained that the goal of the caretaker committee is not to cling to leadership positions but to rebuild the organizational base of the party from the ground up in line with INEC’s instructions and the party’s constitution. She noted that neither she nor Senator Darlington Nwokocha, the committee’s Secretary, seeks personal gain or permanent office.
“I cannot emerge as Chairman, because I can’t succeed,” Usman said during the interview. “Senator Darlington and I, what we are told to do is to organize the party, let it have structure. When Peter Obi was contesting for the presidency, most people kept saying Labour Party has no structure. We want to now go and put the structure. If INEC says their tenure is over, have new congresses, elect new people. That’s what we want to do.
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