One of the major opposition parties jostling to wrest power from the dominant and established platforms, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the Labour Party and the National Legal Adviser of the party, Mr. Oyelekan Akingbade has expressed the belief that the party’s Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has all it takes to defeat all comers in 2023.
Speaking on the upsurge of acceptance enjoyed by the party particularly amongst the youths, he stated that “not only youths, all Nigerians are tired of the spate of mis-governance going on in the country. They are tired of bad leadership. They are tired of the ASUU strike and sundry issues. Nothing is working in Nigeria, so an average Nigerian is tired of the whole system that is not serving them well. The country as it is today is not working. The surge in the membership of the party is a direct response to that. The youths are at the forefront of the campaign for a new Nigeria. They are not the only ones in this agitation. The elderly, men, women, children. All Nigerians are involved in this agitation. All of us are coming together to make sure that we change the narrative of these old men. This is what is responsible.”
He added that “if you go by the level of acceptance of the party by Nigerians, you will discover that the Labour Party will gallantly win the election. I am emphasizing that we are going to win the election gallantly. I am talking about the people. The voters have accepted the party and that is why over time we have continued to call on INEC to conduct free and fair elections. If the election is free and fair, the Labour Party will win any day. This is because we have the majority of Nigerians behind us as we speak now. We have the majority all over the country. We are the party to beat. By His Grace, we are forming the next government in 2023.”
Speaking on whether the party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi’s decision to join Labour Party is responsible for the upsurge in support and interest, he said, “Absolutely! You cannot take away the personality of Mr. Peter Obi from this surge. Of course, the Labour Party had been in existence since 2006 and I can tell you that we have never had it so good. I am not saying the party was unknown because we had members who had contested and won seats and offices across the country. We still have credible people within the party but the coming of Peter Obi has accelerated the surge in the membership base of the party that we are experiencing now.
“There is something I have discovered about politicians in the country and the way they relate to threats. They usually try to downplay the challenges and give the false impression that all is well. Anyone or any political party in Nigeria today that tries to pretend that it isn’t going through sleepless nights about the turn that our party has taken in the last few months is just deceiving himself. As far as I know, the Labour Party has been givi n g established politicians some sleepless nights as far as the 2023 election is concerned. It is a serious problem for them.
“The leaders of the APC and the PDP can’t even sleep. The other day, they resorted to all manner of antics such as direct attacks on our members, unlawful arrests of our members by the security agents. In Lagos, the APC and its agents have been going round asking for people’s PVC numbers. The plan is to cut down the expected number of votes that would come to the Labour Party. They are all jittery and we know but they are trying to deny or downplay the popularity of the Labour Party in the country. They are doing that to their detriment because the Labour Party is on ground,” he added.
(Adapted from an interview by New Telegraph)
