The chief spokesperson for the Obi-Datti campaign organisation, Yinusa Tanko, has said that the ongoing crisis rocking the party would have been avoided if the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure listened to the party’s flagbearer in the last election, Peter Obi, for an all-inclusive convention, News About Nigeria reports.
According to him, Abure dismissed Obi’s advice for an all-inclusive convention only to land the party in crisis.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Tanko noted that the recently concluded national convention of the party which returned Abure as the national chairman was not all-inclusive.
According to him, when the issue of the national convention came up, Obi suggested to the national chairman that because the party has now known a massive level of growth, they need to consult relevant stakeholders and other interested and patriotic Nigerians before fixing the convention.
Tanko listed the people Obi suggested they meet to be; the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), stakeholders, the Obidient group, young generation people who are interested in seeing Nigeria work and leaders who have different ideas that can midwife us into a greater height.
He said, “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. 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 in.”
The Obi-Datti spokesperson further noted that, though Abure has the right to contest the national chairmanship position again, it is only proper that the right things are done by opening the door for more people to be part of the process.
He, therefore, stated that the convention that produced Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party is not acceptable by everyone in the party because he went outside 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.
