A chieftain of the Labour Party and chief spokesperson for the Obi-Datti campaign organisation, Yinusa Tanko, has reacted to the crisis rocking the party.
In an interview with ChannelsTV, Tanko noted that the crisis could have been prevented if the leadership had taken the advice of Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.
Tanko said the recently concluded national convention of the party which returned Julius Abure as the national chairman was not all-inclusive.
“His Excellency, Peter Obi, has made a concerted effort in trying to intervene at any point we have this particular issue and trying to improve,” Tanko said.
“When the issue of the national convention came up, he (Obi) suggested to the national chairman that because we are bigger now, we need to have a wider consultation: meet with responsible and interested people such as the TUC and NLC, stakeholders, the Obidient group – young generation people who are interested in seeing Nigeria work. Meet with leaders who have different ideas that can midwife us into a greater height.
“All of these were the suggestions that he (Obi) made, and not only did he make those suggestions, he practicalised them because he met with the members of the National Assembly.
“He (Obi) met with the leadership of the party recently in Asaba trying to give them ideas on how he thinks certain things could be done and you could improve our situation but of course, you know how politics is, sometimes, people may be trying to encourage people, but they do something different.
“You can only take a horse to the river, but you cannot force it to drink water, so that’s exactly what Peter Obi has done, he has done so greatly to see if we can find a solution to some of the problems we find ourselves.”
He said while Abure has the right to contest the national chairmanship position again, it was only proper that the right things are done by opening the door for more people to be part of the process.
Tanko stressed that Abure breached an initial agreement to have an all-inclusive national convention which ought to start from the ward, local government and state levels before the national level.
He said that the convention that returned Abure as the party’s leader “did not conform with that agreement” and therefore was “not acceptable”to everyone within the party
Asked if the crisis in the party could be a problem for Obi in the next election, Tanko said “Obi is a brand of his own and that he and other people will always move with him wherever he goes to”.