The Nigeria Labour Congress on Monday vowed to mobilise its members across the 774 local government areas in Nigeria to achieve victory for Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in next year’s presidential election.
NLC National President, Ayuba Wabba, said stated this on Monday at the National Retreat of the party in Abuja.
“One issue that we must take very serious is actually conscientising our members and also Nigerians because Nigeria is so much divided along many primordial interests and many interests that are self-centred that we need to address,” he said while speaking about how the party can achieve its objectives and better Nigeria.
“No country in the world can prosper and work in unity if the country is so divided. So one of the responsibilities of Labour Party is to unite Nigerians along a common goal of development and prosperity,” he said.
Opponents of the Labour Party and its presidential candidate have often dismissed Mr Obi’s chances of achieving victory at the polls on the grounds that it lacked the needed structure.
But Mr Wabba has no doubt about the structures in place.
“Let us organise at all levels. Let us send a message at all levels. I assure you that as Britain did it in 1945 when all the structures were actually won by the Labour Party and recently… Australia also did the same,” he said.
The NLC President added, “It’s not that we don’t have we have structures; human beings are the structures. It is just to activate the structures and put them to use. It’s just like a weapon in military circles. You service them when the need arises.
“So the need has (arisen) for all the structures of the political commission of both TUC and NLC to be activated in all the 774 local governments. Importantly, also the structures of all our affiliates, both TUC and NLC, membership together is 12 million.”
In his speech, the NLC President defended the youths of the country, insisting that they are not lazy and have been failed by various governments.
Mr Obi is known to have built significant support and following among youths in the country, and Mr Wabba believes that their support is critical to the success of Mr Obi and the future of the country.
“I am so happy that the youths have aligned themselves with the structures and the struggles of the working class – we, their parents – because we are actually parents to the students and the youths because they are actually realising that agonising alone without organising cannot take us anywhere,” he said.