Mr Ceekay Igara is the National Vice Chairman (South East) of the Labour Party. In this interview, he speaks on the crisis rocking the party and other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

There seems to be no end in sight to the crisis rocking Labour Party. As the party’s National Vice Chairman (South East), what is the true situation of things? The Labour Party doesn’t have any issues. Like I always keep telling people, Labour Party is not factionalised. We have only one national chairman and that is Julius Abure.

We have one national secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim. These are the two authorities we have and we have one national secretariat in Utako, Abuja. So, there is no faction in the party.

What of the other faction of the Labour Party with Nenadi Usman as the national chairman?

This question becomes imperative given that when they speak, they also say there is no other Labour Party except theirs. In all these, how can the Labour Party be united? I don’t even want to go into the issue of what happened because the Supreme Court has made it very clear that the court does not have any power to tell us who our leader is, who is our chairman, or who is the leader of our political party.

The Supreme Court has also made it very clear that anything that comes out from any meeting that is not enshrined in the constitution of the party is ab initio, null and void. These are all Supreme Court issues. The constitution of Labour Party says before any meeting or any gathering will produce anything that is binding on the party, it must be called by the national chairman and national secretary.

For the meeting that produced Nenadi Usman, were the national chairman and the national secretary the people that called for that meeting? The answer is no. So, ab initio, it was just an effort in futility. I don’t know why you want to misdirect, give people wrong information. You don’t want to give them information from the point of knowledge.

You journalists talk like this because you want to misinform Nigerians. I say this because I’ve given you a background from which you can take your information from. I said the Supreme Court of Nigeria said that all political parties should abide by their internal mechanism, internal guidelines and rules. As a party, our constitution says that any any meeting or any gathering that is not called by the national leadership of the party, in this instance, national chairman and secretary, is null and void.

That’s why we’re speaking to the Nnewi Convention because it was called by the national chairman and the national secretary. The meeting that brought Nenadi Usman, was it called by the national chairman, national secretary? The answer is no. So, ab initio, from the Supreme Court point of view, it’s null and void. From the Labour Party’s constitution, it is ab initio, null and void. So, that’s why we treat it as something that did not even happen.

When we had issues, we made sure we resolved the issues and continued to survive as an independent entity because of our peculiar ideology and what we want to achieve

I know that the Abia State governor is in the Labour Party and I also understand that he is in the other side of the divide, so to say. Do you still consider him a member of the Labour Party?

He has not resigned from the party. And because he has not resigned from the party, that is why we still know him as a member of the Labour Party and Abia State is still controlled by Labour Party. This is also not to mention others.

Has there been any effort to reconcile aggrieved members, so that Labour Party can be united as it was before, and what are the steps taken so far?

Recall that Abayomi Arabambi and Lamidi Apapa were on the other side before. Now, they are no longer there. Arabambi is now the National Vice Chairman South West. I want you to just understand what’s really going on, except those who don’t want to be part of the party. Favour Reuben is now the Assistant National Organising Secretary of the party, while Apapa has been moved to the Board of Trustees.

All these moves are to reconcile the party and to make sure that we are stronger; that’s why I said we have a united party. Don’t forget, we just concluded our congresses across the nation. I hope you know that.

Nigerians may be surprised that Lamidi Apapa is now a member of the Board of Trustees given how he was antagonistic of the party and even its presidential candidate in the 2023 election…

Of course, you cannot throw away people who offended the party. But the only thing this time around is that the party has decided to stick to its constitution and rules. That’s why we moved and brought back some of the national officers that were not happy with the party. The people you are talking about are elected people, not the officers of the party. Will elected people in the party lead the party?

No, they are not the leaders of the party. They are not those who are constitutionally given the responsibility to call for anything. That’s why I keep blaming the journalists, because you people don’t educate the people properly. You don’t give them the right information they need to know.

But we have the mandate to interview whoever is available and willing to speak. It’s always our job to make sure that we balance stories…

I completely agree with you, but in doing that, you should endeavour to give them the background that will give everybody the opportunity to judge who is doing the right thing, just like I’ve given you the foundation.

Your presidential candidate in the last election, Peter Obi, is also romancing the coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC). Can we also say that he is still in Labour Party?

He has not resigned from our party and if he has resigned, I am not aware but I am not sure he has resigned from the Labour Party. As long as he has not officially resigned, it is not out of place to say he is still a member of our party.

Are there efforts to bring back or reconcile such influential members of the party like Peter Obi?

I just told you that we’ve reconciled with some of the officers who left. The party is bigger than an individual and we’re making overtures to reach out to everybody. The ones I mentioned are the ones that the efforts have paid off. So, the party is making effort to do the needful.

Everyone seems to now identify with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a development some people say is very concerning. In the midst of that, what are the efforts the Labour Party is making ahead of the 2027 elections in order to replicate the feat it achieved in the last election?

That some politicians are identifying with the APC does not mean APC will win everywhere. Some of them are jumping into the APC because of the excess baggage they are carrying, to make sure that their sins are forgiven. Some are also going there to see whether they can leverage the federal might and win. Some are going so that if they lose, they can be given a federal appointment.

So, there are several reasons why people are joining APC. But in the Labour Party, we’ve learnt a very great deal of lessons from 2023 experience. And that is why the Labour Party has been able to reinvent itself.

You may not have known that based on the fact that some of the people we gave tickets to during the 2023 elections jumped from us to other parties, they still jumped with their old ideology, forgetting the ideology of the party. Based on that, the party has now realised that we gave them this mandate on a platter of gold without proper orientation.

The party has now created an institute, so that all our candidates and some of the newcomers will be given the orientation of what Labour Party stands for in order to deepen democracy and the democratic process. There are several other things the party is doing which are not for public consumption and I wouldn’t want to let it out of the bag.

In the South East, APC controls three of the five states. The ruling party also controls virtually all the states in the South-South. Given all these developments, do you think the defections would guarantee election victory for the APC in 2023?

It’s too early to say and I’ve given you the foundation why some are joining the APC. In Enugu, for instance, the Labour Party won the state. It’s very clear that the Labour Party won Enugu State. So, I want to believe that the governor joined APC because of the shock the Labour Party gave to them. Also, despite the fact that the Enugu governor is doing well according to information I have, if he remains in the PDP, he may face serious challenges because PDP has some serious issues now.

So, I want to believe that is part of the reasons why the Enugu governor ran away. But to be honest with you, there is no time APC is going to be dominant in the SouthEast. However, according to some of the things I’m seeing, they are more visible now in the South-East unlike before because of some of these governors that are joining the party but that does not translate to winning elections.

Apart from the reasons you have advanced, some political watchers have said that some of these politicians, particularly those with electoral offices, are joining the APC because of 2027 and because there is no free and fair election. What is your take on this?

When you look at the last Anambra State election, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won the poll. So, if the Federal Government manipulated it, they would have manipulated the election to favour the APC. But APGA retained Anambra State. So, yes, it could happen but the truth must be told. It is only the people that can decide who will lead them at any given time.

Based on your response, does it mean that you believe that the 2027 elections would be a deviation from the 2023 exercise as Labour Party faithful are strongly of the view that the 2023 presidential election was highly manipulated?

Without prejudice to what happened, I played deeply within the electoral ecosystem or the election environment during the last elections and I found out a few things. Elections are not won on social media. Elections are not won with sentiment or emotion. Elections are won with practical examples. Remember, there was a scenario in Bauchi State where the Labour Party won an election without even fielding a candidate there.

Now, assuming we had a candidate and we had agents to protect that, we would have won the election. So, the challenge we’re talking about is the challenge of having the right people at the right places and talking to the right people to make sure that elections are won. That’s the simple thing. There’s no magic about it.

The coalition ADC said that for President Tinubu to be threatened in 2027, all other ‘smaller,’ parties or smaller interests should come and join and form a greater coalition. They said the ADC is the main opposition party in Nigeria and that others should align with them if they hope to defeat the incumbent. What is your take on that?

They said they’re the strongest coalition or opposition but my party made it very clear that they’re not joining any coalition. It’s very clear. The national leadership of the party said we’re not joining any coalition and because we’re not joining any coalition, we’re not considering joining any merger.

Mind you, the Labour Party, whether you believe me or not, is the greatest opposition we have. The people that you have in the ADC, most of them abandoned their parties. When they had destroyed their party, they abandoned it and joined a new coalition. But, for us in Labour Party, when we had issues, we made sure we resolved the issues and continued to survive as an independent entity because of our peculiar ideology and because of what we want to achieve.

So, you cannot remove the issue of the Labour Party being the strongest opposition. On merge, It’s very laughable when you bring strange bedfellows together and think they’re going to make a mark.

I don’t know whether it’s too early to ask this question; what is the Labour Party’s plan in terms of zoning ahead of the next election? Some people have said it’s only a northern candidate that can unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027. Is there such plan by the Labour Party to field a northern candidate? Is there even a discussion about zoning by the party?

We have not even gotten to that level. When we get to that bridge we’ll cross it. Somebody called me the other day and said that another person told him that the Labour Party was going to support Tinubu; I just laughed. Why did I laugh? I laughed because it’s too early to start talking about that.

Mind you, the party must first of all have its own presidential candidate before you start talking about anything. So, if anybody should speak about supporting a president or so, the party must have done its own homework, make sure that our own candidate is there. And such could only come from the party’s decision and party executive, not from an individual.

So, coming to talk about zoning the presidency to the South, it’s too early for us to talk about that. Mind you, this is 2025. It is only when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) publishes a timetable and the party studies the timetable that we will take a decision and know exactly what to do moving forward.

What’s your final take on the leadership of Labour Party?

You people are the ones that are misinforming Nigerians. You’re misinforming Nigerians because you don’t give them the adequate background for them to understand and then to make the right decisions. I want you to continue to engage people. You said that Nenadi Usman is a faction; if she is a faction, on what premise is she a faction? She’s not a faction because she’s not a product of legality. You cannot build anything on nothing.

It’s just that they’re misdirecting and distracting some people when the Labour Party would have consolidated on the gains we’ve made so far. Some of us can accuse them of being agents of the APC or agents of the PDP. We can boldly say that because they were the ones that started the crisis in the party and the party was united before they started throwing up Nenadi Usman.

Nenadi Usman cannot in any way stand as a leader of the party because the constitution didn’t support her emergence. So, these are some of the things you people should tell Nigerians, give them the background, give them the platform in order to take decisions that will guide them and people will make informed decisions.

That’s why I keep accusing you people. Some of you want to sell your paper, you want to make sure that people listen to your radio and your television, and because of that, you just come up with all manner of things. For us, that’s why we keep quiet. Thank God you saw how INEC and the court settled the issue because you cannot build anything from nothing.