Comrade Lamidi Apapa, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party, recently declared himself the factional leader of the opposition party. In this interview with ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS, the former union leader dissected the crisis in the party, his interpretation of the recent Supreme Court judgment and why he can’t allow the rivalry between the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee and the Nenadi Usman caretaker panel tear the party apart

You disappeared two years ago following your court case with Julius Abure over the party leadership. What happened?

I had to take a break from jumping from one court to another fighting Abure then. I am sure that was what gave people the impression that I had gone on recess. We still have our issue in court and to avoid the contempt of court, one needs to be quiet. Otherwise you will create more problems for yourself. That was before this one (Supreme Court judgment) happened again.

You claimed to have taken over the Labour Party leadership going by this recent Supreme Court judgment. How did you arrive at that conclusion?


I don’t know whether you have seen a copy of the judgment. The point is that Abure went to the Federal High Court and was given the mandate of the court that he is the national chairman, moved ahead to the Appeal Court and was still recognised as the national chairman of the party. But the Supreme Court now dismissed everything, that he should no longer parade himself as the chairman of the party through the court pronouncement. Now, Peter Obi organised another group led by Nenadi Usman. Nenadi too now believes that since Abure’s chairmanship issue has been done somehow that they can take advantage of that. They formed a group and a caretaker committee in their own way. I hope you are aware I still have a leadership case with Abure at the Supreme Court.

Are you saying your perennial court case with Abure has not been resolved or is this a fresh one?

Of course, it is the very one we are pursuing right from the issue of Edo State when Abure was restrained from calling himself the national chairman. We are still in court.

That is two years ago…

Exactly! It is about two years now. But the restraining order was vacated by the Appeal Court. Now we are at the Supreme Court. But what we demanded at the apex court was what this same court has also pronounced that it is an internal crisis and the court has no jurisdiction. Now, if the court has no jurisdiction and Mr A is laying claim to the chairmanship, the Obi and Otti people, who are Party B, too are laying claim to it. Then who should be there? As far as the party is concerned, there is no vacuum. If Mr A is dead, Mr B should take over. When you want to make a report on who should handle the matter, the person we should think of is Peter Obi. But it is clear that Peter Obi and Otti were the ones that raised Nenadi. Now, how would they judge the matter? The court equally mentioned that we should abide by the constitution of the party to solve your problems. If Abure is saying the Supreme Court order doesn’t affect him and the Nenadi group has also formed a committee of their own that they will now take over, what does the constitution of the party say on that? This is because whichever way we seek to resolve this issue, we must still make reference to the Labour Party constitution. Article 14 (2) A and B is clear enough that for whatever reason at all, if the chairman is unable to play his role, his deputy takes over in acting capacity. It does not require looking for a thousand people. It is clear. Now, what I have done so far is still not beyond the authority of the constitution of the party and that empowers me without asking anybody. Let me give you an instance. You are travelling with your driver and all of a sudden he collapses. Are you going to stay on the road? At that moment you will take over the driving job to save your life. So, if we are to be frank about the moment we are right now, the Labour Party is in trouble. If Obi calls a meeting, who will obey it when already he has taken sides by having somebody in mind who will take over the party. On the other hand, if Abure calls a meeting to justify what you have in mind, nobody will attend. The only thing that nobody can prove otherwise is the book that all of us believe in. The constitution was written when there was no crisis. This is not an issue of mob. It’s a matter of legality.

But the Nigeria Labour Congress seems to back the Obi and Otti group. What exactly should be its role in all these?

It doesn’t matter whether they support Obi and Otti group or not. Their problem is this. You can be a professor but if you lack wisdom, you can’t get results. Before you embark on any fight, you need to sit and count the cost. You must assess the merits and demerits of what you intend to do, not just having the mindset that this is the way I want it to be. I enjoy saying that because each time I want to hold a meeting, I usually don’t have a decision before calling for it. But when you have decided before holding a meeting, you must definitively make a mistake. But when you get to the meeting and you have superior arguments that will compel you to change that decision, how will you change it? Now, at the beginning of our crisis, the NLC people were with Abure. You people in the media are all living witnesses. Obi And his Obidient Movement were also with him. I was alone and being blackmailed. ‘Oh, somebody is using or sponsoring him,’ they kept abusing me. But I keep on saying even if somebody is bankrolling me, what about the issue on ground? But now, is it not clear that nobody sponsored me? I believe that the truth must be told. I am not saying Abure did not do anything. His people suspended him and that suspension has not been lifted. Instead of resorting to the organs of the party to address the matter, he went to court. Now, after running around for two years, the court said it doesn’t have authority to intervene in your matter. This means we still have to go back to the Labour Party constitution. We can’t return to individuals because they have failed to play their role. But the party constitution is here to bail us out.

Was that the reason you declared yourself Labour Party acting national chairman?

Of course! It is clear enough that I am the most senior deputy national chairman who is next to Abure. Now that the party is in a dilemma, what do we do? I want to hold on to everybody’s opinion that I am supposed to be there because we can’t go back to court. The court says it is the internal affairs of your party. Do we wait till eternity and wait for miracles to decide it? No, it doesn’t work like that. The next question to ask is, ‘what did we do when there was crisis?’ The law that we generally put together is clear that the deputy chairman will take over in case of such an issue.

What is your position on the planned invasion of all LP secretariat and offices nationwide by the NLC?

It is an illegality in the sense that you cannot unmake what you don’t make. The offices were either rented or built by members of the party and the NLC cannot claim ownership of the Labour Party. It is true the NLC played a very important role (in its formation). But it was done by a group of individuals, not by one person. I was the state chairman of the NLC, first of all as an Executive Secretary and later as the Chairman of the NLC, Oyo State Council. I am a card-carrying member of my own union, which is NUPENG. So, they don’t have that right. They are giving the order as if they own the party.

Are you saying NLC as the parent body has no power over the Labour Party?

Let us get things in proper perspective. Even as parents, our rights stop somewhere. Let me give you an example. If your son has a car, you can claim it is mine because it belongs to my son. But he can tell you ‘No, there is a limitation because that vehicle was registered in my name.’ Despite being the father, he has his own limitation. Now can the NLC tell the whole world the financial status of the Labour Party across the country? Of course, no. So, can anybody from the Labour Party just wake up one day and say he wants to become president of the NLC? How is it possible? So, there is need for one to have this at the back of his mind. It is true the NLC played a role. Nobody can fault that. But if you abuse it, then it will be faulted.

Now that INEC is studying the Supreme Court CTC, are you not nursing fear that either you or Abure could lose out?

No, I don’t see any fear there. If you hear the INEC representative, because I listened to him, he said the commission would still maintain neutrality, which means INEC is still expecting more. In fact, it is aware that before the Nenadi Usman committee, there was an exco on ground. Besides, all the fights I have been having against Abure, INEC were given. This is because each time we moved from one court to the other the documents were sent to INEC for their record purposes. So, they cannot pretend to be a novice and ignore what is happening. If by tomorrow we also submit our own report that this is what we have in mind, just as Otti did, they will equally take it. But the point is that can they judge it? Somebody asked me if there was INEC influence behind my taking over the leadership. I said we don’t need their influence. What INEC could do is just for them to hear. But if at the end of the day, the Supreme Court has directed us to go and settle our internal crisis through your party constitution, I now refer to them that I have taken over, being the most qualified and INEC says no, tell me, whose name are they going to recognise? Is it the name of somebody who is not even in the constitution at all, because if they do that, there is going to be an issue again and we will say go to court. To me, the solution is that everybody should be ready to speak the truth and abide by the truth. What I said from day one is still what is resurfacing. Tell Abure to step aside and let us investigate all the allegations against him, that will solve all these problems we are having. But by that time when they were benefitting from Abure, they (Obi’s camp) were all screaming ‘On Abure we stand’, including the NLC. You will recall that time when Abure went with the NLC to the LP secretariat and claimed they learnt some interlopers were there to take over the party. We were even regarded as rodents that should be fumigated. I remember saying their day is also coming. It is the law of Karma. After some time, using their language, Abure betrayed them because he did not fulfil the agreement he had with them. The Peter Obi people that were shouting ‘On Abure we stand’ were highly disappointed. Do they really have any allegation against Abure other than the ones we exposed? So, until we agree to speak the truth, we will continue to have this type of problem. If they had agreed with me that time and forced Abure to address the allegations, we won’t be where we are today. You cannot be a judge in your own matter.