The national leadership of the Labour Party on Monday revealed that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress, retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, are presently pleading for the support of the party (LP) ahead of the 2015 general elections.
This was disclosed by the National Secretary of the Party, Barrister Kayode Ajulo, while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja.
Ajulo however pointed out that most of the presidential candidates who have approached the party failed feasibility test set by the party.
The LP national scribe explained that the party’s decision not to field a candidate for the presidential election was not an oversight but a strategy.
He advised Nigerians not to repeat past mistakes by voting for political parties whose policies and programmes are anti-masses.
In the words of Barrister Ajulo, who is also a human rights activist: “Certainly, our voice will count in choosing the next president for Nigeria.
“We are the beautiful bride in Nigerian politics.
“We are being wooed by President Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party and General Buhari’s All Progressives Congress as well as other presidential hopefuls.
“As mentioned earlier, we will do the needful, we shall do the desirable, we are accountable to the people and we shall reflect their aspiration in our decision, which will be made known at the appropriate time.
“LP as at the close of submission of candidates to INEC, did not field a presidential candidate.
“This is not an oversight but part of our strategies and principles as a socialist and realist party.
“If we must field a presidential candidate, we must field the candidate to win and not to merely participate in the election as some parties are doing.
“Most presidential candidates who have approached the Labour Party have failed feasibility test set by the party.
“As it is, what we would have done is to set up a committee that will scrutinise all the presidential candidates as presented by other political parties and make recommendations to the leadership of the party on the candidate to endorse.”
The LP revealed that it has submitted the names of Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, Chief Great Ogboru and Ambassador Bagudu Hirse as its governorship candidates for Oyo, Delta and Plateau States respectively for the 2015 gubernatorial election.
While noting that elections are around the corner and politicians have started coming with fake promises and gift items to hoodwink the people, Ajulo declared that the Nigerian masses have what it takes to vote out such persons or their cohorts from power.
According to him: “Power belongs to the people and all over the world, when the people rise in unison to say ‘it is enough’, they change any government they want out.”
The LP national scribe noted with regrets that most state governments were owing workers salaries running into several months, while the governors are amassing the money for politicking in 2015.
Ajulo suggested that any governor whose tenure will end in 2015 must be made to pay all arrears owed to workers before their exit from office.
He said: “These same governors know that since they are leaving, they have also devised means of foisting their cronies to take over leadership from them.
“This must be rejected in its totality.”