National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Pastor Obiora Ifoh, said in this interview that his party is playing its role well.
There are concerns that your party is not playing its role as an opposition well.
If you recall, Labour Party was in court after the 2023 elections because we believed we won the election.
We were at the tribunal and courts. We knew it was going to be a difficult situation fighting a ruling party, but we were determined to go the whole hog to prove a point that it is better to seek judicial interpretation of what happened, rather than allowing people to filter into the streets to demand justice.
You know what happened in so many countries where such things happened; lives were lost. But Labour Party decided that in order to deepen democracy and to enrich our jurisprudence, it was better for us to follow the legal course, and we did it.
From the moment this government was inaugurated, we knew that Labour Party would be endangered.
We came out shouting that the government and the state apparatus would likely attempt to destroy the Labour Party. Shortly after that, our presidential candidate (Peter Obi) said that he was going to lead the party to ensure proper opposition to the government.
I can tell you that from that moment to this present time, both the party and its leaders have continued to pick on this government, particularly on policies that are anti people. Right from the moment they hiked the fuel pump price, to the moment they hiked the electricity tariff and other economic policies.
The work of opposition is to voice out the frustration of the people and also to give constructive criticism on how best the policies can be implemented to achieve results. We are not expected to go beyond that; and we have done that on daily basis.
Nigerians are always inundated with LP’s position in every critical policy of the government like the removal of subsidy. We argued it and told the world how we could have done better.
Few months later, the government came with a bloated ministerial list, we shouted and argued that it wasn’t necessary. As if that was not enough, the government came up with building of unnecessary infrastructure, profligacy in the government, building individuals instead of institutions, and Labour Party shouted. That is what is called opposition.
We are not expected to carry arms against the government because they are the elected body and by the Constitution of Nigeria, we are expected to respect that, especially when the judiciary has given them at least four years to work.
So, it is not true that LP has not played its role as an opposition party.
When this government came into power, a dollar was about N350. Now, the dollar is almost hitting N2,000. And would you say that we have not talked about it? We have kept shouting, and we have done that both within the local and international seats; discussing the economy of Nigeria and the poverty situation in Nigeria. So, it is not true that the Labor Party has not done well in the area of proper opposition to the government.
So, the LP is not in a ‘romance’ with the ruling party as is being alleged?
What we see here is a party that is determined to survive, we didn’t get where we are today because of APC. Before the 2023 general elections, we had just one member in the National Assembly but we worked hard, got into the election because we had a leadership that was willing to work and we won 35 members in the House of Representatives. We got eight Senate seats and we got numerous other members of the states’ assemblies.
So naturally, LP became a threat to the ruling party and to some other bigger political parties. We nearly won the presidential election, so we became the envy of all, and what we saw was people believing that if Labour Party is not checked, it could cause a major upset in future elections. Before you knew it, there were sponsored attacks, insurrection within the rank of the party and sometimes you give glory to whom glory is due. So, when all these things were happening, we ran to the judiciary and the judiciary saw reasons with us that we had been haunted by enemies outside using the enemies within to make sure that Labour Party does not have a life before 2027.
In over 50 cases we have had in the court both at the lower court and at the Supreme Court, we have won all without exception because everybody saw that LP is the party for the masses. You are quite aware that we have issues of crisis in the party, some generated, some needless, and even at that people have refused to leave the party.
Some LP members of the House of Representatives have decamped and we are fighting it out. So, if we are in a relationship or using your word ‘romance’ with APC, would we be fighting or would we keep quiet?
It is believed that the leadership crisis in the LP is still affecting the party from performing its leading opposition role…
The party has a strong peace mechanism that we are using and it has been working perfectly well. Most of the leaders who initially turned against us are beginning to return into the party.
The contention earlier was that the national convention we had in March this year was not legitimate. But the courts have already given judgment, saying that the party complied with all laid-down rules and laws. We abided by the rules of the 1999 Constitution, the 2022 Electoral Act and the party constitution, therefore, there is no reason why anybody should stop us.
Based on that, a lot of people have started coming back and we are doing well. That is why I can confidently say today that Labour Party has no crisis again.
How do you think the LP and other opposition parties can be alive to their responsibilities?
I can’t really speak for the other political parties because I don’t know what they are doing. But I know that the 19 political parties in existence have their own programmes and everybody is looking towards 2027 to win elections or make maximal impact in the elections.
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