From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Labour Party (LP) National Chairman, Julius Abure has berated the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo over his scathing remarks about the party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.
In this interview, the LP National Chairman spoke on how governors in opposition parties attempt to thwart the party’s campaigns in their states, delay in the release of its manifesto and other issues.
What do you think is the reason people are gearing towards the Labour Party and its candidate? Why the massive turnout? Are you impressed? What should we expect in future campaigns?
I want to say that I am highly impressed, following the turnouts of the party supporters and citizens for the party. Democracy is defined as government of the people, for the people and by the people and thereby, as a political party that wants to be in government, when you enjoy such massive support, as the chairman of the party, I obviously should be happy. It is very clear that the people are tired of the existing political parties. It’s very obvious that people are desirous of change. People are tired of APC and PDP. like I said before, if you have a product, and that product is not meeting your demands, it is very obvious that you have to do away with that product. And therefore, the upsurge of people that we see, the number of people that we see supporting the party today, it is clear that it’s because the people want change. Obviously, we have the best of the presidential candidates. The party is also one of the best in town apparently because of the psychology we are manifesting and because of our programme. Our presidential candidate is the only one among all the committee of presidential candidates that has the competence, the character and the capacity to drive the process of development. Apparently, this is why we enjoy the support from our people. I want to say that I’m happy and in the next few weeks, we are going to visit more states. We are going to visit all the states of the federation like you saw in Edo, we went to the three senatorial districts. We intend to repeat that. We intend to meet with workers. We intend to hold town hall meetings. In fact, we are just beginning. We have a lot of these tours. You are going to see a lot of road shows, townhall meetings, seminars. We are going to hold campus visitations. In fact, we are going to generally mobilize Nigerians in order to vote for the party next year.
The campaigns are gradually winding down, do you see the tactics by the ruling parties in some states to frustrate campaigns of opposition parties in their states as a big threat to parties like yours as you plan to go to subsequent states?
We are generally having these attacks more with the Labour Party. It’s not just an attack on political parties; it is generally an attack on democracy because democracy ordinarily guarantees the freedom to assemble, freedom to succeed, freedom to sell your manifesto, freedom to converse affirmative policy. These are all the tenets of democracy. It didn’t start today, I must recall an incident that happened in Ebonyi, where our party members were attacked. In Awka Ibom, they have also attacked our members. In Lagos, they have also been attacking our members. In some instances, they have had shops of our members shut down. In Kogi this week, we saw very serious attack on our candidates during campaign where people were even injured and it was traceable to the APC government in the state. In Ebonyi also, just the other day, we saw a very massive and bloody attack on our campaign trail and candidates. In Edo my my home state, you saw how they denied us of about four venues. The governor denied us Ogbe stadium, blocked us from using museum ground, which was almost approved, blocked us from using UBTH ground, blocked us from using sports complex in UBTH. Thanks to the Baptist Convention that eventually obliged us with their convention camp which was eventually used for that programme. But, I believe that the tactics will fail. In Edo for instance, the people came out in their numbers and barricaded the streets. Edo was locked down. The truth is, no man, no amount of harassment or intimidation can stop an idea whose time has come. I believe that the time to change APC and PDP is now and the people have resolved to that. So, no matter what they do, even if they deny us of venue , people will converge on the streets and hear us. It is even making us to be more popular. I mean, Edo State Governor was forced to come out and start explaining why he denied Labour Party the use of that venue and those excuses became unattainable like you saw and therefore, it shows the level of desperation and that is why we have continued to advise that the greatest privilege and opportunity that you have in office is for you to perform and meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people. That is the only way you can sustain yourself in office. That is the only way you can go out and ask for more votes when time for election comes. Like the Bible we say, that there is always a judgment day. You can do what you like, but there’s always a day of reckoning and election period usually are the times for reckoning. So the time of reckoning has come and luckily, Labour Party is the alternative, our candidates are the alternatives to PDP and APC and we are ready to continue to provide that leadership.
Your candidate has been trending badly owing to the comments by his own state governor, Soludo. Is he losing a grip of support from his own base as he tries to garner support from voters across the country? So, how related is it with the politicians at home?
You could see that his comment was borne out of selfishness. His comment was borne out of self centeredness, it was borne out of desperation. It was borne out of envy and jealousy. I mean for somebody who was CBN governor, who should know the importance of investment which has been acclaimed by other governors to be one of the best things done in Anambra State; for such a man to demean such a person, will tell you that he is acting from a selfish point of view. And therefore, Soludo does not control the majority of the people of Anambra state. He does not have control over what plays out in Anambra State. I want to also say clearly that even Soludo rose on the legacies of Peter Obi. Because Peter Obi was the first to come to power through the platform of APGA and he built the party, consolidated it, worked for the people of Anamabra, which gave confidence to the people to continually vote for APGA, and therefore, one can say clearly without any fear of contradiction that Soludo is riding on the legacies of Peter Obi because if not that Peter Obi built APGA by his performance, by instilling confidence in the people to have confidence in the party, Soludo would not have had the platform on which he would have become governor. Therefore, I see Soludo’s comments as a distraction, and I urge the people of Anambra to treat it with a pinch of salt to discountenance it and disregard it. By the time we take our campaigns to Anambra, we will test and see who is popular in Anambra. Like Sonny Okosun would say, we will know who owns the land. So very soon, we will know who owns the land by the time we take our campaigns to Akwa, to Onitsha, to Nnewi. We will know who owns the land and by the grace of God by next year, we will see who will control and win in Anambra State.
Don’t you fear that Soludo’s remarks about your candidate may affect his popularity in the South East?
The opinion of Solodo is a minority opinion. An Opinion that I have said should be treated with a pinch of salt. It’s very clear that he’s not speaking the mind of Anambra. It is a minority and myopic point of view, parochial point of view and the people of Anambra, even without consulting them, I can say it clearly that is not a popular opinion. That’s why I have said that by the time we take our Campaigns to Anamabra State, very soon, and because of his comment, Anambra may be the state that we will take our campaigns to very soon so that we can test our popularity and test to see who owns the land. We will see who owns the land very soon. My candid advice to him is that he should tune down his comments because he will be destroying his future and destroying himself if he continues along those lines.
The recent attacks on INEC facilities have raised concerns that the 2023 general elections may not hold. What is your view on this?
Obviously we condemn the attack. I mean, these facilities were procured using taxpayers money and for every right thinking citizen, it is condemnable for public facilities to be destroyed. I mean, there’s no justification why facilities should be attacked at this point especially when we are preparing and working towards the 2020 general election. But I do not see that as affecting the conduct of the 2023 general election. I will urge INEC, urge the security apparatus to be more vigilant and secure other facilities of INEC. Such an institution that has the responsibility at this time to conduct election should be secured. And this brings us to the point that we have always made, that the country is highly insecure. It is at this stage that people can willingly have freedom to attack such an institution and then go away without the culprits being brought to book; then it lends credence to the fact that the country is highly insecure. So, I must use this opportunity to again, call on those in charge of our security agencies to beef up security on INEC facilities so that you can have the perfect and hitch-free general election.
Just few days ago, there was a trending story about allegations of the illegal drug money involvement of one of the leading contenders in this election. Are you subscribing to the general feelings that someone that has tainted his hands with drug money should be asked to step down?
Well, the answer is obvious that the Labour Party is a party for the people. It is driven by the people. It is owned by the people and therefore respects people’s opinions. So, if there is a general feeling that those who have stolen money, those who have tainted themselves with public funds or drug money should not participate in the election; what else do you expect me to say? So the answer is in the affirmative.
We followed the campaign so far and I must commend you for what you have done. But I want to find out, you have the South South, where we have the powerful magnet, the money bags and the South East where your candidate is from. How do you intend to get the North into this? Where is your strong base?
Well, our strong base generally is the people of Nigeria. The people that are oppressed, the down trodden that have been denied education, that have been denied health are actually our strong base. Across the country, whether in the North or the South, we enjoy a lot of support from the people. But you may be right to say that we have more support from the South but we enjoy support generally from across the country because people try to bring in tribalism, ethnicity into all of this but it is no longer standing because the average voter today, is more enlightened than we thought they were and today it’s just not an issue of ethnicity. Like Peter Obi would say, and like I have always emphasized, those in the North do not buy garri cheaper than those from the South. Hunger doesn’t know tribe. Today, the number of out of school children are more in the North than even in the South. When President Goodluck was in office, he created Almajiri schools and removed Almajiris from the streets. He wasn’t a Muslim. He wasn’t from the North. But he did all of that. At this point, it is not about where you are from, but of course, the political oligarchy in Nigeria, the political class, have been using the ethnicity, tribalism to create a divide to continue to remain in office. I think that is coming to an end come 2023 and those are the issues that we have conversed to say the 2023 election is not about where you are coming from. It is about your character, about your pedigree, about your competence. It is about your age. It’s about your health condition. All of these will play a role in who becomes the president next year. So generally, we’ll enjoy support from across the country and we believe that we’ll get more support. It will shock you to know that as we move closer to the elections, some people who are underground will come out.
Okay. Often times, before elections such as this, you have several promises coming from left, right and center. Has the party been able to harmonize each position on policy issues with that of the candidates. Because when Buhari came on board, we now started hearing things like “Oh we didn’t promise this or that”
I want to say clearly that we have convergence between the party and the candidates on the issues that we are conversing for 2023 general elections. On the issue of security, we have an agreement. On the issue of unity of the country, on the issue of the economy, name it, I think we have streamlined our position with that of the candidates and that’s why if you see the spokesperson from the party, and the spokespersons from the campaign council, they say the same thing at the same time. I agree with you that in the past, people have made several promises and that’s why we have continued to say that for 2023, it will not just be about the promises that are made. It should also be the antecedents, the pedigree and the character of those involved in it. So for us, 2023 transcends just making promises, interior things, just making promises and that is why we have not been in a hurry to bring out the manifesto because we have seen people who have beautiful manifestos, who have made promises and that’s why we are telling Nigerians that they must go beyond the rhthorics of what they hear and then look at the past, of those who are running for the 2023 general election. You have three, four leading presidential candidates, those three, four Presidential candidates, what Nigerians should look out for is, who were they? You were governor of Lagos. How did you run Lagos ? Are you still holding on to Lagos as at today,? The asset of Lagos, what did you do to it? Are they acquired? Is it now a personal thing? You were governor of Anambra, what did you do with the assets? Did you use your position as a trustee to acquire the lands in Anambra? What were your investments as governor of Anambra State. You were Vice President of the country, what did you use your office to do? The privatization policy of that government that you chaired, what became the outcome of it? What did you do with it? Were those assets sold to private persons or did you buy them through cronies? These are the questions Nigerians should look out for and be able to use what they have done before, to articulate and arrive at what they’re likely to do. Because those people who have the tendency of stealing will steal again. Those who have the tendency of rebuilding the country, of rebuilding their state will equally build their country again. Those who have sympathy for the people will again have sympathy for the people. Those who are used to acquiring for themselves and for future generations, when they become president, they will still exhibit that character. The shape of a dry fish can never be changed. So those people who have the characteristics of stealing, of anti- democratic principles cannot change no matter the story they come to tell you. You saw the promises of the PDP from inception, or you’ve seen the promises of APC from 2014. And today, the result is clear that they have failed. So, we urge Nigeria not to take them seriously. No matter the beautiful manifestos they bring, no matter the stories they come to tell you from APC and PDP, we advise the people to discontinuance them because they can never keep to their promises. They can never fulfill the promises they are making, because you already know their history. You already know their past, you know what they’re capable of doing. So every reasonable person at this point should be able to change those products and get a new one and the only new product as at today, is the Labour Party.
Recently, you cried out about the financial state of the party. You said it was grossly under funded to carry out campaigns. You solicited for funds. There have been reports that some Nigerians have responded. What is the update on that?
Well, the account is everywhere. It is online. It was made public for people to make donations and from time to time, we have always published the statement of account. As it stands today, what we have got in that account is about N10 million. We didn’t really get the response that is needed from Nigerians but we believe that perhaps we need to appeal to people more. Perhaps, we need to organize more fund raising activities in order to get more Nigerians to key into this project. We have always maintained that one of the major reasons the PDP and APC has failed is because money bags control the two political parties and they say “he who pays the piper dictates the tune” Therefore, those who finance the parties, sit at the background, and give you leaders who will dance to their tunes and that is why we believe that the country has not been able to perform. Because we have leaders who have loyalty not to the country or the party, but to those who have sponsored them to the office and that is why we are conversing alternative. That is why we have opened the Labour Party’s political space for the people to own.