THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will welcome defectors into the fold of the Labour Party to provide equal political opportunity to all Nigerians.
Addressing the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party in Abuja yesterday, President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, also accused government agencies of hatching plots of various degrees and dimensions to destabilise the Labour Party.
He said: “All agencies of government are involved in these destabilisation plots. All of us should understand it clearly. They must be told to remove their hands from the organisation of the Workers’ Party. That is a sin. All over the world, the Labour Party is organised and run by the workers’ unions.
“Over 57 countries of the world have functional Labour Parties in operation. The British TUC has been in existence for as long as one can remember. They have been using the Teachers’ Union office there for their operations for many years.
“So, why would Nigeria be different? Why would Nigerians put eyes on the Labour Party here? These are questions we are asking. Labour Party is not strictly for only workers or NLC, it is a party formed by Congress and given to Nigerians with clear-cut ideology.”
Ajaero declared that the Supreme Court has decided that running political parties and resolving crises within is the preoccupation of the party through internal mechanisms.
“When people talk about Supreme Court ruling, it makes me wonder if the Supreme Court would run the political parties. It is not the Supreme Court that makes up the Labour Party. It is not,” he explained.
Ajaero described the Labour Party as a platform that offers equal political opportunity to all Nigerians irrespective of social class, religion, section, tribe, or beliefs.
He added: “This is the only party where the son of nobody can become somebody. If you check the last 2023 elections, you see all kinds of people winning elections on the platform of the party. Did we not see an ‘Okada’ rider winning elections into the National Assembly? Did we not see those that never dreamt of success in politics succeeding?”
The NLC chief, who took an indirect swipe at other political parties that charge exorbitant fees for expression of interest and nomination forms often priced in multi-million tags, said the Labour Party is diagonally different from such, saying, “In Labour Party, we do not charge hundreds of millions to contest elections because we cannot afford it. We are contesting because we want to add value to society and provide succour to the oppressed and not out to make money out of the misery of the people.
“Those of us from the Labour movement cannot sit down here and allow people to agree that you pay 20 million, pay 30 million to pick the nomination form. If we do that, we have lost our focus on having a party that is the working people’s party. So, the NLC is ever committed to making sure that our party works.”
Ajaero described institutional members of the Labour Party such as NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC), NLC Political Commission, and Women Commission as ‘barracks’ that lack the capacity to defect to another political party, said the door of the party is open to any Nigerian who genuinely wants to change the trajectory the country is presently on.
“So, those who want to join the Labour Party from other parties should come. This party is an institutional party. We do not defect. NLC and TUC leadership are institutional members that cannot defect. When politicians defect, we sit there. Soldier comes, soldier goes, the barracks remain. So, this is our party,” he stated.
He urged all the stakeholders to close ranks and work together for the betterment of the party.
Speaking earlier, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the party, Sylvester Ejiofor, said previous efforts at resolving crises bedevilling the party failed because they fell short of the demands of the party constitution, the Electoral Act, and the highly acceptable legally mutual agreement of the parties, popularly referred to as ‘the Consent Judgement’ of the Federal High Court Abuja.