Andy Ezeani
\nTuesday,April 14 2026<\/p>\n
The reel of the absurd cinematic drama of Nigerian politics rolls pretty fast. Characters therin appear and disappear at a pace that challenges concentration. No sooner had one grotesque scene run by than another scene that is more surreal comes along.<\/p>\n
It is doubtful that a more expensive circus can be found elsewhere than what is called national politics in Nigeria. It is a big scam no less, mounted and sustained at the expense of the poor citizens.<\/p>\n
As of this day, chances are that many Nigerians would have totally forgotten or are gradually forgetting the fellow called Julius Abure. He was on everybody\u2019s face just yesterday, as chairman of the Labour Party (LP).<\/p>\n
As fulfilling as being party chairman would have been for Abure, it may not have been as lucrative as a subsequent ancillary hit job.<\/p>\n
Abure, for those who may have forgotten so soon, was the spindly gentleman, with bowler hat and French suit, who fate smiled upon when Mr. Peter Obi joined the Labour Party in 2022 to seek its presidential ticket for the 2023 elections.<\/p>\n
Obi\u2019s embrace of LP triggered off a tsunami of popular support that catapulted a hitherto supine Labour Party to a vibrant sought-after political platform.<\/p>\n
The resuscitation of LP offered Abure far more than his proverbial 15 minutes of fame. He actually gained months of reckoning as the national chairman of arguably the most vibrant political party before the 2023 elections. With that status came a lot of privileges, visibility, and access.<\/p>\n
The position of LP chairman around the giddy period of the 2023 elections and immediately after, also enhanced Abure\u2019s value on the treacherous floor of Nigeria\u2019s other stock market \u2013 the one where politicians are bought and sold.<\/p>\n
As it has turned out under the Bola Tinubu era, the price of any politician with any claim to a top leadership position in a faction of a major opposition political party has risen so sharply that it can be enough to cater for the retirement of any individual effectively purchased.<\/p>\n
Did Obi, the presidential candidate of the Abure-led Labour Party actually win the 2023 presidential election as a number of people still swear he did? That question is academic. Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Returning Officer of the 2023 presidential election and chairman on the Independent National Electoral Commission, declared Bola Tinubu, not Peter Obi, the winner of the election. That ended the matter.<\/p>\n
For Abure, the then LP chairman, whether his party and its presidential candidate won or failed to win the election, seemed of secondary importance. His eyes seemed fixed on personal gains.<\/p>\n
The new height that LP was taken to in 2022\/23 opened up new alluring prospects for the party, and Abure was not ready to let all that slip away. Unfortunately, his tenure as party chairman elapsed right after the election.<\/p>\n
His efforts to hang on to the chairmanship position through desperate contrivances threw the party into crisis, but he did not seem to care. Whether he was driven by personal ambition or was already playing the script from the forces that were out to stop LP from becoming stronger, cannot be said.<\/p>\n
If Abure was as committed in fighting to protect the mandate of LP and its presidential candidate in 2023 as he was in retaining the position of party chairman, his zeal for the interest of Labour Party would probably have endeared him to many within their party and beyond. That did not seem to have happened. All that seemed to matter to him was how to retain the seat at LP headquarters.<\/p>\n
With the Labour Party marked out, alongside other major opposition parties, for destruction following the inauguration of the Tinubu presidency and its commencement of a dark scheme to annihilate viable opposition parties, the stock of someone like Abure was bound to rise.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, while Abure was the chairman of LP, a seemingly disoriented fellow with the littoral surname of Apapa, had been propped up to lay claims to the chairmanship of the Labour Party and cause dissension within the party.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, Mr. Apapa\u2019s persona was neither convincing nor strong enough to effectively disorganize the LP. The fellow was discarded subsequently.<\/p>\n
Like actors on the stage of a disruptive drama that Nigeria\u2019s national politics has become, Apapa was withdrawn. He quietly went away.<\/p>\n
When Abure, while still at the court laying claims to the leadership of Labour Party was captured in a public photograph, at the doors of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, coming out from a lunch, there was no more doubt that the former LP chairman had become an asset of sorts.<\/p>\n
Depending on his inclination, Abure may actually be \u2018catching a cruise\u2019 at the moment in some nice holiday location in or out of the country. He may also be on standby, in case there arises the need to call him up for another scene in the drama of Nigerian politics in which propped up factional party chairmen have become highly sort-after merchandise. If Abure elected to take time out for a holiday, that will be understandable. A labourer deserves his wages.<\/p>\n
Now, enter Nafiu Bala Gombe. The ongoing political drama featuring Bala Gombe as the latest factional party chairman on a mission to hobble the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is very much in tune with the running script.<\/p>\n
The challenge before Nigeria and its democracy is no longer in doubt. The point here is not about the validity or otherwise of Bala Gombe\u2019s claims at the ADC.<\/p>\n
What should be of greater interest to Nigerians is the reality of the collapse of the ethical foundation of life and leadership in the country. Identifying some malleable characters and propping them up as factional party leaders in a charge to destroy the parties they claim they ought to be leading is a new low in public conduct. It is a despicable strategy that speaks of depravity in the affairs of the country.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, while Bala Gombe was battling, literally, to read a script prepared for him last week at the INEC gate, another character who identified himself as Don Norman sprang up to assert that indeed, he, and not Bala Gombe is the rightful factional chairman of the ADC.<\/p>\n
Don Norman\u2019s message is clear; those who trade on factional party chairmen should reach out to him, too. Unfortunately for the fellow, a publication quickly turned up, showing that Norman had earlier been declared wanted elsewhere by the Police. But then, what does that matter? That profile may even make him more suitable for a factional party chairman these days. What a peculiar mess of a society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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