The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure has declared that the party doesn’t have any stronghold because Nigerians in totality are its strongholds ahead of the 2023 general election.
Abure noted that Labour Party’s strongholds are its supporters that are oppressed, the downtrodden, and those who have been denied education and health care.
Naija News reports that Abure told Punch that Labour Party enjoys support from the people across the federation, be it north or south because people are no longer playing politics of tribalism and ethnicity.
He, however, admitted that the party enjoys more support from the south, adding that the average voter in Nigeria today is more enlightened than people think.
According to him, hunger knows no tribe, and those in the North do not buy garri cheaper than those from the South, citing that the number of out-of-school children is higher in the North today than even in the South.
He advanced that politics in Nigeria today is not about where you are coming from and that there is no doubt politicians have used in time past to create an ethnic and tribal divide, but the situation he said would change in 2023.
Abure explained to Punch that “Well, our strong base is generally the people of Nigeria. Our strongest supporters are the oppressed, the downtrodden, and those who have been denied education and health care.
“Across the country, whether in the North or the South, we enjoy a lot of support from the people. But you may be right to say that we have more support from the South but we enjoy support generally from across the country because people try to bring tribalism and ethnicity into all of this, but it is no longer standing because the average voter today is more enlightened than we thought they were, and today it’s just not an issue of ethnicity.
“Like Peter Obi would say, and as I have always emphasised, those in the North do not buy garri cheaper than those from the South. Hunger knows no tribe. Today, the number of out-of-school children is higher in the North than even in the South. When President Goodluck Jonathan was in office, he created Almajiri schools and removed Almajiris from the streets. He wasn’t a Muslim. He wasn’t from the North. But he did all of that.
“At this point, it is not about where you are from though the political oligarchy in Nigeria has been using ethnicity and tribalism to create a divide to continue to remain in office. I think that is coming to an end in 2023, and those are the issues that we have discussed to say that the 2023 election is not about where you are coming from.”
Naija News also gathered that while speaking about the recent attack on the party’s flag bearer, Peter Obi by the Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo, the Labour Party chair observed that “The opinion of Governor Charles Soludo is a minority opinion and should be treated with a pinch of salt. He’s not speaking the mind of Anambra. It is a minority and myopic point of view, and the people of Anambra — even without consulting them — can say clearly that it is not a popular opinion, and that’s why I’m saying that.
“By the time we take our campaigns to Anambra State, which will be very soon because of his comment, Anambra State will be the state that we take our campaigns to so that we can test our popularity and see who owns the land. My candid advice to him is that he should tone down his comments because he would be destroying his future and himself if he continued along these lines.”
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