By Ehichioya Steve Odion
The 2023 general elections may have come and gone, but which ever role anyone may have also played during the period will remain in the political archives.
In the case of the National Chairman of the Labour Party, LP, Barr. Julius Abure, history may not be kind to him if the information reaching the Groove Watch News from Edo Central is something to hold on to.
Abure as the national chairman of the Labour Party, LP, was not able to make a political statement during the National Assembly and the House of Assembly elections by winning at least one or two seats for his party.
Investigations by the Groove Watch News crew indicated that the national chairman of the Labour Party, LP, Barr. Julius Abure contributed to the poor performance of the party in Edo Central which is made up of the Esan speaking people of the state.
Some of the respondents in the zone were of the opinion that the inability of the chairman to come home to mobilise his party members and other people in the district contributed inmmensely to the poor outing of the party during the election.
According to them, "As the national chairman of a political party that was dominated by youths and those who wanted the real change in the country, it would have been a big opportunity for him to capitalize on that and come home regularly to encourage and mobilise his people for the election before and after the presidential election. Instead, he stayed back at Abuja thinking that the support given to the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi by the Obidients which made the party to win the presidential election in his senatorial district will also apply to that of the National and State House of Assembly elections that took place on the 18th of March, 2023. But it never happened in that way. Also, as the national chairman if he has convinced Peter Obi to come to Esanland to reassure the candidates and appeal to the people to support the party, today it would have been a success story for the party and the candidates.
"That the national chairman, Abure could not produce one house of Assembly member at the Edo State House of Assembly is a political setback for him that he must keep pondering upon. We were actually looking up to him for massive support, but unfortunately nothing came out from him. We are highly dissappointed with the outcome of the national and House of Assembly election results in our senatorial district".
Another reason the people in the zone were highly disappointed, was having been marginalised for years by successive governments they thought Julius Abure having been lucky to be made the national chairman of the party that was fully embraced by Nigerians who have experienced so much hardship and suffering in the past 7 years, the people were looking forward to him to use his office to bring more attention and strategies to win election for his party. But reverse was the case.
There is no doubt that the hope of the people of Edo Central and Edo State in general were very high during the election, having it in mind that the party may dominate the political space in the state in the coming Edo Governorship election due next year. But guess what, they were highly dissappointed when the party could only win one house of Assembly seat in the state.
They were of the strong opinion that House of Assembly members being close to the people at the grassroots have a big role to play in helping the party in mobilizing the people at the grassroots for any election, especially this coming 2024 Governorship election in Edo State.
However, Julius Abure would have learnt a lot of political lessons during this period which may also assist him in other future elections.
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