By Engr.Ralph Obasogie
Fellow Comrades, leaders and colleagues of Edo State Labour Party, I salute you all. Has anyone amongst us ever done a post-mortem on the last presidential and House of Assembly elections? In other words, what did we do right and what did we do wrong? While we should strenghten what we did right (cant really identify any), we should act decisively to solidify the party in order to have a formidable platform for upcoming elections.
Thank God the Local Government election have been moved to September 2023 and the gubernatorial election is in 2024. In my effort to raise funds for the concluded elections, I met ex-governors and many other Edo State VIPs only to find out that they had already supported Labour Party at various levels with cash donations. Party leaders in diaspora also sent in cash donations. Sadly, these donations did not get to the State LP as we were told, and therefore the State LP was left prostrate, unempowered, and unable to act to support nor protect our LP candidates. Our candidates were molested and beaten up by thugs undefended.
What transpired was that individuals at all levels of LP were cashing out huge sums of donations into their individual pockets while the State LP was suffering as a Party. In many cases, some individuals compromised and sold out to the opposition. Some people fail to realise that there are more benefits to party members in victory than the pocketing of paltry sums in defeat. It still baffles some of us why LP did not field candidates for some seats in Edo North. Should we allow this penomenon to continue or repeat itself? The answer is a big NO!.
It is interesting to see so many people (although diatinguished in their own rights) who are aspiring to get Edo State LP governoship ticket. Each of them should ask themselves how they have helped to build the Edo LP as a platform on which they want to run? The State Campaign Council (SCC) had no kobo allocated to it. I, as the DG of the SCC had to be spending personal funds during the elections. Aside from government thugery, another reason LP lost the House of Assembly(HoA) elections was because we failed to cater for the welfare of our hard-working polling agents and they abandoned us. For their work during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, we paid some of them only a day before the HoA elections and others were not paid.
We have to bring seriousness into the Party. We have to get all Party members to repect the Party, and respect the known leaders and officers of the Party. I call for Party Discipline once again.
It is also necessary to advise all aspirants not to allow anyone asking for money to fool them because this time around, such a person cannot impose any candidate on party members. The silent but formidable group in Edo LP to which I belong will not allow this to happen again.
We should build and equip a Party that we will all be proud of; a Party that will be reapected by opponents; a party that can support and protect its candidates and members. We should by now be thinking of a beffiting secretariat. We should be thinking of having logistics vehicles. During the last elections, we had to hire vehicles. My group stands for auditable accountability, my group believes in integrity and cohesiveness.
The time to start preparing for tomorrow is now.
Very warm and kind Regards to all.
Signed:
Director General, LP State Campaign Council
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