on attempts at self-perpetuation by the LP Chairman
The National Chairman
Labour Party (LP)
LP National
Office
Ladoke Akintola
Boulevard
Garki II
Dear Chairman,
IN DEFENCE OF THE 3RD LP CONVENTION
HOLDING BY OR BEFORE DECEMBER 19, AND AGAINST A THIRD TERM BID
By December 19,
2013, it will be four years since the 2nd Convention of our Party
was held at the Labour House, Abuja, where you were returned to run for a
second term of office as the National Chairman, haven been elected into the
office on February 28, 2004, at the 1st LP Convention which held at
the National Women Centre, Abuja.
At this juncture,
all well-meaning party members, and supporters are looking forward to the
convocation of the 3rd LP Convention and you handing over as
National Chairman after spending almost a decade in that highly exalted office.
I am constrained to have to point out the obvious, due to some unclear signals
that you just might be interested in self-perpetuation as the party chairman:
such a step would not augur well for either you or the party, and I would have
otherwise considered such signals as being nothing short of rumours.
I was however
very much bothered at the last National Working Committee meeting where you
were very ambivalent when the issue was raised and I noted that it was most
likely a non-issue as you had not indicated interest that you would run. Your
response that I should not put words in your mouth, and that you had equally
not said you would not run, was, and
indeed is, very worrisome.
A further cause
for concern in this regard is that barely two months to whence it becomes
illegal for us to still continue holding office on the basis of the mandate of
the 2nd LP Convention, there is no sign that the 3rd
Convention is to be summoned. Indeed, if we are to recall the ruling of the
Courts on the case of “the five governors”, your second term as National
Chairman should have ended on February 28, last year, which made it eight years
since you took the oath of that office.
There was a
general feeling that the last NEC meeting at the beginning of September would
have fixed the date for Convention and set up the necessary committees for
this, which I expressed at the pre-NEC NWC meeting. But you rather assured both
the NWC and subsequently the NEC that yet another NEC meeting would be held by
October 9 for this purpose, but till date, there has been no notice of a NEC
meeting.
At the heart of the
possibility of your running again, as
you pointed out, is the contrived lacuna in the constitution with regards to
tenure of office. At the 2nd Convention, you had proposed that the
provision limiting tenures of office to two terms be expunged in the course of
constitution review, and got this proposition passed.
This was not
without debate. But you argued that in Norway for example, the Social
Democratic Party which is the approximate equivalent of our Labour Party in
that country has no tenure limits for its officers. But there are quite a
number of things wrong with this argument.
First, the
political system in Norway is different from that in Nigeria. It is not only
the party of labour that has no term limits. Virtually every party and indeed
the governments do not have term limits. This is not something peculiar to
Norway. It is common with parliamentary
systems in general. Thus, same goes for ALL parties in countries such as
Britain and Germany, where Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel respectively did
win third terms in office.
Second, being
registered on the basis of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, the party’s constitution cannot be superior to the letters and spirit
of the laws of the land, which envision limits for political office holders.
Third, beyond the
law, there is a serious question of morality and legitimacy, particularly for a
party like ours that aspires to promote politics of a new social-democratic
kind. How do we defend self-perpetuation, particularly as you spoke the mind of
the party when you openly condemned President Olusegun Obasanjo’s botched third
term agenda?
Beyond the
possibility of your running for the office of National Chairman again, what
could appear to be a justification is the great strides you have apparently
made in placing LP as a leading party in the country, with a serving governor
who has distinguished himself with pro-people programmes, and several
legislative seats at the federal, state and local government councils’ levels.
Without any doubt, this is a laudable achievement for which you should be
commended, as party leader.
But, this is the
more reason why you should leave when the ovation is loudest and with your
track record intact. There will always be sycophants who will tell you that “no
one but you”, at the detriment of your good name. They are like the sirens to
Odysseus, and are best kept at bay.
There are ways in
which the party could continue to tap from your wealth of experience and
goodwill that are honourable. It is in this light that I proposed earlier that
a Board of Trustees could be constituted wherein you could continue as a
leader, if you so choose and it is democratically assented to, by the party.
Labour Party has
been, arguably the only party with any significant electoral presence that has
not been rocked by internecine feuds thus far. It is also the only one within
this fold that has had the same chairperson serving for almost a decade. In my
humble opinion, it would do the party no good, for us to stir avoidable crisis
over an otherwise simple and straight forward matter, as men and women of
honour and dignity, rooted in the traditions of the labour movement. This is
particularly so as the party is presently hopeful for success at the polls in
Anambra and should be keen on unity and not divisiveness.
I would thus at
this point in time call for: the initiation of Convention process, with the
summoning of NEC to fix a date for the 3rd Convention and constitute
the requisite committees and; due respect for honourable politics and
democratic traditions against self-perpetuation.
In summing up,
permit me to observe that, I still do not want to believe that you will take
the plunge into a third term bid that could tear the party apart, at this
decisive point in time. No matter how it turns out politically, the legitimacy
and moral authority of the party would be dented by such a calamitous plunge.
Further, I must
say, my intervention with this letter is a principled one. You might want to
recall when in 2006 there was an attempt to remove you from office in what I
considered objectionable circumstances, I stood firmly against this, despite
being a major critic of yours, starting from 2005 when I had to write demanding
that the National Working Committee be summoned after nineteen months with no
meeting held. This led you to commend me as a principled partisan at the peace
parley initiated by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who was then the NLC President. It
is with this same spirit that I now raise a voice of reason, which however you
might feel about it today, is as much in your interest as it is in the interest
of the party as a collective.
Thank you,
BOA Ayelabola
Deputy National Seceretary
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