The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, says Nigeria is collapsing, charging the opposition to speak up against bad governance in the country.
Obi, who was speaking at the National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja on Wednesday, decried the level of poverty and hardship Nigerians are facing.
He said that things have gotten bad, and it is time to stand together for the right things, starting from the Labour Party.
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“We must speak when things are wrong, Nigeria is collapsing, the numbers are clear, the indices are clear, more and more people are poorer. People who used to feed well are now begging, even in this hotel. Any time I enter this hotel, I see people telling me, ‘Oga, I came to Abuja, I can’t go back’.
“Where I used to go that people ask me, ‘Oga will you eat? Will you drink?’ Nobody is asking me anything again. That shows you how bad it is. So, let us know that things are difficult, things are bad. Let us stand together and ensure that the right things, starting from our party, are done,” Obi said.
The Labour Party held its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and was chaired by former Finance Minister Nenadi Usman.
The meeting follows the controversy over the recent Supreme Court judgement on the national chairmanship position for the Labour Party.
In attendance were the 2023 LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, and the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti.
Senators and members of the House of Representatives who are members of the party were also present.
After the meeting at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, leaders of the opposition party marched to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
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Led by Peter Obi, and the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, the members were received by INEC National Commissioner, Sam Olumekun.
They asked the electoral body to recognise Nenadi Usman as the LP chairman, days after the Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Abure as the National Chairman of the LP.
In a unanimous judgment last week, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure National Chairman of the LP, having earlier found that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
The apex court held that the issue of leadership was an internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction, and noted that Abure’s tenure had since expired.
The court allowed the appeal filed by Senator Ester Usman, and one other and held that it was meritorious before subsequently proceeding to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the Abure faction of the LP for being unmeritorious.