Nollywood actor cum politician, Kenneth Okonkwo, has reigned as a member of the Labour Party (LP).
Naijaonpoint reports that the thespian made this known in a statement via his X handle on Tuesday, stating that the resignation takes effect from the 25th of February, 2025, which marks the second anniversary of the 2023 presidential election.
Giving reasons for his resignation, Okonkwo stated that the Labour Party, as presently constituted, is not in a position to be part of that political force that will determine the political future of Nigeria.
Kenneth Okonkwo also cited the LP’s inability to conduct congresses at the ward level, elect local government and state party executives, or hold a national convention.
According to Okonkwo, it is evident that the LP National Chairman, Julius Abure, is not interested in the party’s survival as he is interested in the survival of his pocket.
The statement reads, “I thank, most sincerely, all Nigerians of goodwill for the immense support given to us during the 2023 presidential election in which Nigerians believed our message for a new Nigeria and voted for us across ethnic and religious lines. We were the only party that had 25% foothold in all six Geo-Political Zones and the Federal Capital Territory. I believe that we won the election under the Labour Party with your support but were denied the victory through a technical glitch.
2. By 25th February 2025, it will be two years we had the 2023 presidential election and will be two years before the next presidential election. It’s a democratic convention worldwide that effective political consultations, alignments, and re-alignments commence two years to the next election. Unfortunately, the Labour Party, as presently constituted, is not in a position to be part of that political force that will determine the political future of Nigeria.
3. For the avoidance of doubt, Labour Party is non-existent as presently constituted. In the Constitution of Labour Party, the tenure of the ward, local government, and state party executives is three years (See Article 15(2)(3)(4) of the Labour Party Constitution). Having conducted no congresses at these levels within the constitutionally allowed tenure of the executives, their regimes have effectively expired.
4. The former National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, and his former National Working Committee, having conducted no national convention known to law, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the courts having held that the issue of the leadership of a political party is the internal affair of a political party for which the courts do not have the jurisdiction to entertain, there’s no effective leadership of Labour Party at the national level.
5. The Senator Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee, which was duly and legally set up by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Labour Party, after the non-recognition of Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) by INEC, and was given six months to conduct congresses and the convention, was the only viable option towards salvaging the Labour Party.
6. Unfortunately, Abure and his colleagues, with the collaboration of outside forces, expectedly, being political jobbers, launched unnecessary legal challenges against this Caretaker Committee that have inhibited it from functioning. It’s more than six months after the inauguration of the Committee, and the Committee has not even taken off, leading many to conclude that the objective of these politicians of bread and butter with their outside collaborators is to bog down the serious members of Labour Party with frivolous and unnecessary litigation till the 2027 election is over. Isn’t it curious that a national executive of a political party whose elected members are defecting everyday to other parties, and who can not wage legal battles to recover these seats for their party, is waging ferocious legal battles to maintain their destructive, choking hold on the party.
7. It’s obvious that Abure is not interested in the survival of Labour Party as he is interested in the survival of his pocket. If he is interested in the emergence of a southern candidate in Labour Party to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, going by the convention of having a northern national chairman of a party and a southern presidential candidate of the same party, whenever going into election, the first thing he would have done is to cede the position of national chairman to the North since the party is interested in fielding a presidential candidate from the South. This was the suggestion of people like us who are genuinely interested in the survival and flourishing of Labour Party. Nigerians, especially the North, may have overlooked the combination of both the national chairman and presidential candidate from the south in 2023 because of the peculiarities of the time but will not overlook it in 2027, because we have had the time to prepare for the 2027 elections.
8. Having not done this, it’s obvious that Abure and his gang simply want to use some of the presidential candidates from southern origin as cash cows to be yielding money for them without any serious intention of making the party viable for them for any serious competitive election in 2027, confirming the belief in most quarters that they are surreptitiously working for the victory of the ruling party. I pity any prospective southern presidential candidate who still believes there’s a political future for him in an Abure-led Labour Party. Such a person is simply displaying a lack of knowledge of the political realities of modern-day Nigeria.
9. I have never been double faced in my life. I have never betrayed any cause I set out to fight for. My entrance to politics is for good governance, and I will continue to work for it to ensure that Nigeria becomes a great country of incorruptible men. This aim can no longer be realised within Labour Party as presently constituted. Since the party is non-existent as presently constituted, I am constrained to resign my membership of the party to all Nigerians of goodwill who supported us when we needed them most and to pledge my continued loyalty to the Nigerian people in all I will decide to do in my political future.
10. This resignation takes effect from the 25th of February, 2025, which marks the second anniversary of the presidential election of 2023, after which I will be at liberty to join other well meaning, and like minded Nigerians in charting a great future of good governance for this great country blessed by God.”