NENADI USMAN-LED LABOUR PARTY SUSTAINS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES AND ATTACKS ON THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS OF MEMBERS

DSM CALLS FOR RESTORATION OF LANRE ADELEKE AS LABOUR PARTY GUBER CANDIDATE FOR LAGOS STATE.

It was not shocking to us when the national executive of the Labour Party led by Nenadi Usman undemocratically substituted an apparently money-bag candidate who never participated in the primary or is active in the party for the democratically elected Lagos gubernatorial candidate. This is an entrenched policy in the party since the 2007 general elections. In fact, anti-people politicians who lose primary elections in the mainstream bourgeois parties (AD, APC, PDP, ANPP, APGA etc.) or cannot be accommodated usually find refuge in the Labour Party.

Comrade Lanre Adeleke aka Lanre Legacy, socialist and pro-democracy activist, emerged as the Lagos Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in a democratically organized primary duly monitored by INEC officials. Subsequently, Labour Party’s national secretariat issued INEC forms EC9 and EC13B forms to him and these INEC forms as well as other important documents were filled and submitted. However, instead of Legacy’s name, it was that of one Rotimi Odunaike that was published by INEC as the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State.

This is a miscarriage of justice and flagrant violation of the democratic rights of Lanre Adeleke and members of the Labour Party in Lagos who duly elected him as their candidate. This unlawful substitution would not have happened without the active collaboration of INEC whose independence and impartiality has been invalidated once again in this travesty of justice. This shows clearly how INEC actively participates in the rigging of not just the general elections but also party primaries.

The Labour Party, which was formed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in 2002, is supposed to be a political platform of workers and the poor to uphold and defend their interests. Unfortunately, the trade union leaders, shortly after the formation, abandoned the party for wheeler-dealers, money-bags, political jobbers and corrupt rightwing politicians to take over. In other words, from the outset, Labour Party is not distinguishable from other anti-people political parties like the APC, PDP, APGA etc. The successive leaders of the party have converted it into transactional one wherein electoral tickets are sold as commodity to the highest bidders while workers and rank and file party members are relegated to the background.

Lanre Adeleke has challenged the unlawful substitution of his name in court and we support all legal and political actions to bring about justice.

Rather than for the Labour Party’s national leadership to retrace its steps, it has consolidated its undemocratic attacks through another unlawful and unjust removal of Comrades Affiong I. Affiong and Lanre Adeleke as the Lagos State Chairperson and Secretary respectively. We believe that this action, together with the illegal replacement of Lanre Legacy as the party’s candidate in Lagos, is not unconnected to a desperate attempt by the party’s national leadership to remove every obstacle to its planned, eventual endorsement of the ruling APC in both the Lagos governorship election and the presidential election in 2027.

Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) calls on INEC and the National leadership of Labour Party to restore the candidature of Lanre Adeleke and upload his name on the INEC Portal. We also call on the Labour Party leadership to unconditionally reinstate Comrades Affiong I. Affiong and Lanre Adeleke as the Chairperson and Secretary of the party in Lagos State respectively. More importantly, the party leadership and members in Lagos must be prepared to resolutely fight for these demands as part of a struggle to reposition the party as a genuine working people’s political alternative.

There is an urgent need for the trade union movement, workers, artisans, pro-labour organisations, socialist organizations and activists to begin the discussion on how to build a mass workers’ party. This is necessary as a process to mobilize the wider oppressed masses to constantly resist anti-poor capitalist policies and defeat the exploitative, corrupt and backward capitalist ruling elite and their political parties, and begin the genuine rebuilding of Nigeria with socialist program and policies.

Peluola Adewale

Organising Secretary