By Shehu Bashir Esq.
It is high time Nigerians asked the leadership of the Labour Party as a critical player in the political system in Nigeria to determine whether they are one and the same with the Obidient ideology which is daily transforming into an insurrectionist group. Nigerians want to know where does the party belong and if the party now takes orders from IPOB sympathizers?.
The events of the last few weeks have called for concerns, to call out the Labour Party leadership, to determine whether the party has transformed into the official wing of the Obidient rebellion which is now a force against the Nigerian State. The fact that can’t be denied now is that many of these Obidients have been claiming that they are a movement, different in principle and ideology from the civil status of the Labour Party as a political party. Many of the Obidients have even claimed that they are superior to the Labour Party, that the Party was just a vehicle they needed to board to convey their principal, Mr. Peter Obi, to a destination. But fortunately for Nigeria, they failed to highjack our nation to plunge us into civil war. And now that they have failed to win the majority votes, they are all out in arms to bring down the Nigerian State, to end our democracy. God no go shame Nigeria.
Interestingly, the proscribed terrorist group, the IPOB which was just categorized as tenth most dangerous in the world has been making inflammatory statements, threatening the peaceful existence of Nigeria and calling for military take over and an end to our democracy. A certain hermit who is taking refuge in Finland has just passed a treasonous order to IPOB terrorist foot soldiers to take over Lagos and enforce its illegal sit at home order.
More pathetic and disturbing is the deafening silence of the Labour Party presidential candidate in the last election, Mr. Peter Obi who has further lost his muffled voice to condemn the various chants of insurrection by his supporters. It is sad and curious how these seditious calls by Obidients could not attract the public condemnation of Mr. Obi. We do not need to belabour ourselves on who is behind all these disobedience to lawful order, rep ipsa loquitor.
Because Mr. Obi has refused to caution his rebellious supporters, many have started to make even worst claims, committing terrible crimes and further inciting the public. Within a spate of one week, one terrorist who was clearly an obidient veteran, whose name was given as Okafor Ibe, was trying to highjack a commercial plane enroute Lagos from Abuja. The highjacker made threatening remarks, putting the lives of everyone onboard in danger. It took the security agencies the patriotism to remove him from the plane.
Another over-indulged war lord, who imperialistically crowned himself as the “Eze of Ajao Estate” in another man’s land openly invited this same proscribed terrorist organization to invade Lagos and cause mayhem. Yet again, Mr. Obi has not found his words to condemn this treasonous act. Not even the widely condemned and condemnable diatribes of his VP candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed was alarming enough to warrant Obi’s condemnation.
Now that all these are happening, it is necessary to call on the leadership of the Labour Party which Peter Obi deceived and used to promote his ethnic agenda, to come out publicly through a press conference to tell the world if they are also part of the movement to derail Nigeria’s democracy or they are for civil and peaceful transition. We know the Labour Party is in court to challenge the outcome of the presidential election, which is the right thing to do. But indulging the excesses of Mr. Obi, to continue to allow him use the Labour Party as “Special Purpose Vehicle” to vent his tribalistic anger on Nigeria State is tantamount to supporting insurrection. The Labour Party must allow the party to live above and beyond it’s members, for building the party’s profile around a candidate, especially a bigoted one at that will send the party into early extinction. Therefore, the party should do the following without further delay:
1) Publicly condemn the insurrection stance of the Obidients family against our democracy.
2) Mandate Mr. Peter Obi to publicly pledge his loyalty to Nigerian State, distance himself from those calling for military take-over and instruct the law enforcement agencies to deal with any of his supporters calling for both interim government and military take-over.
3) Punish any member of the party, no matter how highly placed, who is overtly or covertly supporting the call for military take-over and interim government.
4) Make a public declaration, separating the party’s functioning structures from those of the Obedients and IPOB.
5) Do an open solidarity rally in support of our democracy and condemn anti-inauguration mobs.
Only after the party has taken all these steps do we believe that Labour Party is not an arm of both Obidient Movement and IPOB terrorist group.
