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Nigerian Workers, NLC Must Take Back Labour Party From Bureaucrats – Activist, Nwapa Condemns N15million For Governorship Form

Nigerian Workers, NLC Must Take Back Labour Party From Bureaucrats – Activist, Nwapa Condemns N15million For Governorship Form
March 29, 2023

On Tuesday, the leadership of the party announced that it reviewed and now fixed N15 million as the nomination fee for the governorship form.

A socialist revolutionary activist, Francis Nwapa, has said that the leadership of the Labour Party has been hijacked by bureaucrats and Rightwing elements that made the party not different from bourgeois political parties.

Nwapa writing on his Francis Nwapa Watch lambasted the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi and other leaders of the party for fixing its governorship nomination form fee at N15 million.

Recall that the party charged N25 million for governorship nomination form but SaharaReporters on Monday reported that the spokesperson for the Peter Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, said that the N25million being charged by the party as the nomination fee for gubernatorial aspirants was exorbitant and would not stand.

Okonkwo said that the Labour Party’s constitution frowned at any action that would constitute a hindrance to the participation of any Nigerian in governance at any level, adding that the party would not encourage such exorbitant charges.

On Tuesday, the leadership of the party announced that it reviewed and now fixed N15 million as the nomination fee for the governorship form.

Confirming the development, Obi said he appealed with the LP leadership to reduce the nomination fee.

“I thank the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barr. Julius Abure, and the NWC for heeding to my appeal, and reviewing the nomination fee for the governorship form downwards to N15m.

“I applaud them for also agreeing to refund the cost of the form to the family of a deceased aspirant Chief Humphrey Anumudu from Imo State; and also agreeing to refund N10m to each of those that had paid.

“These gestures reflect the Labour Party's responsiveness to the yearnings of Nigerians,” Obi said.

But reacting to the leadership of the Labour Party and the nomination form fee, Nwapa said that the party has been hijacked and that the N15 million nomination form fee was too high for Nigerian workers earning N30,000 as minimum wage.

He called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) under the leadership of Joe Ajaero to take back the party from the hijackers.

Nwapa said, “We still insist that despite the original intention for the establishment of the Labour Party by the leadership of the Trade Unions and activists, the party has today been hijacked by bureaucrats and Rightwing elements that has made the party no different from bourgeois political parties.

“The intention was to create a political platform for workers to take political power and implement workers programs that will place the management and control of society's wealth in the hands of workers.

“No worker or poor who is under N30,000 minimum wage can afford to contest for political offices in their own party.

“The current leadership of the LP placed the Governorship nomination form for Imo State at N25 Million and the so-called "Progressive" Peter Obi claimed he pleaded with them to reduce it to N15 Million.

“The same class society we want to fight through the Labour Party is now enshrined in the Labour Party, that it's the bourgeoisie politicians who have hijacked the party that can afford to get political office tickets.

“"A working class" political party like the Labour party shouldn't be selling nomination forms as that has automatically ringed out the owner of the party which is the worker under N30, 000 minimum wage.

“The current leadership of the NLC led by Joe Ajaero must retrieve the Labour Party for the workers. The Nigeria workers must arise to take back their party.”

 

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Politics