The Labour Party has vehemently rejected Senator Nenadi Usman’s alleged bid to form an alliance with the party alongside her mentor and former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
According to Obiora Ifoh, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Nenadi Usman’s attempt to transact with the Labour Party is ‘clearly criminal and must be resisted’.
He stated that the party leadership has repeatedly made it clear that it is not engaged in any discussions regarding coalitions, alliances, or mergers.
Ifoh deemed it preposterous for Nenadi Usman to attempt to auction the party to her former mentor, given her lack of affiliation with the Labour Party.
‘The leadership of the Labour Party, on Tuesday, watched in awe as a one-time Minister of Finance and a former member of the People’s Democratic Party, Senator Nenadi Usman, failed in her bid to transact with the Labour Party in alliance with her mentor and former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai.
‘Before Tuesday’s shameful but audacious display by Nenadi Usman, many attempts have been made by some desperate politicians to transact with the Labour Party, all ending in the same disastrous fate.
‘We are also aware that one other group, which has continued to claim proprietary rights over the Labour Party, indicated in a recent statement an interest in joining this transactional frenzy to obliterate this party, seen by many as the third force Nigerians are yearning for.
‘We have repeatedly said that the Labour Party is filled with several transactional politicians whose only purpose in joining the party was to scramble for the soul of the party. This explains the genesis of the crises we have witnessed in the party over the last two years. We have continued to warn that the Labour Party is not merchandise that can be bought over the counter. It baffles us how some individuals continue to engage in a futile enterprise whose end is already foretold.
‘For emphasis, Senator Usman joined the Labour Party in 2022 in support of our presidential candidate as an unregistered member of the party, and up till now, her name is still not on the party’s register. She is not known to her ward, local government, or state chapters of the party. It is only in Nigeria that some desperate politicians can wake up one morning and begin to claim a position, even if such a position is not supported by any law.
‘Today, it is becoming manifest why she forced her way to assume an illegal and ill-conceived transitional chairmanship of the Labour Party. Also, the unseen hands that have urged and funded her covert agenda are beginning to emerge from hiding.
‘The leadership of the Labour Party has repeatedly said that it is not in any discussion with any individual or group on matters of coalition, alliance, or merger for now. It is, therefore, preposterous for Nenadi Usman, who is neither an executive nor a card-carrying member of the Labour Party, to have the audacity to want to auction our party to her former mentor. For how much, I may ask?
‘Nigerians must know that Nenadi Usman dragged the party to the courts, seeking to have the entire executive of the party—from the ward, local government, and state to the national level—sacked, and she lost in both the lower and appeal courts. She was barely two years old as a non-card-carrying member of the party at that time. Today, even though the six-month illegal mandate given to her in Umuahia has since elapsed, she is still sitting in a non-existent office.
‘In her media release, she claimed that she was invited by her colleague in the SDP to witness El-Rufai’s defection. Imagine a supposed party leader saying “they” received El-Rufai into the opposition fold. Was it a CNPP event? It’s laughable that a supposed party leader, who was “appointed” to drive reforms in the Labour Party, went to the SDP, sitting beside El-Rufai, to engage in anti-party activities and claim she was invited by the leadership of another political party.
‘Why didn’t they invite the chairmen of the other opposition political parties? This is a shallow defence and most unfortunate from Senator Nenadi Usman. Her motives have now been exposed, and we urge her to stop playing double games.
‘Finally, we want to state emphatically that we are not against any individual leaving or joining any political party of their choice, provided that, if elected into office on the ticket of a political party, such a person relinquishes the mandate. If, therefore, Nenadi Usman wants to join any other political party, she is free to do so, but transacting with the Labour Party is criminal, and it must be resisted,’ Ifoh said.
