By Tony MASHA
For some months now, mainstream and social media platforms have been awash with alleged cases of monumental frauds in the Labour Party.
It is being claimed, for instance, that humongous funds to the tune of about ₦3 billion generated through sales of forms for elective offices, generous donations garnered from party supporters including those in Diaspora, have been appropriated for private purposes.
There are also issues of malfeasance bordering on forgeries of cheques and signatures of candidates who emerged at various party primaries and selling their tickets and mandates to the highest bidders leading, as it were, to endless swapping or substitution of candidates’ names at the portals of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the extent that the party could not field candidates in various constituencies in different parts of the country during the 2023 general elections because tickets and mandates racketeering continued until INEC deadline for submission of candidates elapsed.
But all this is not entirely unexpected because Labour Party members themselves are inseparable components of the decadent Nigerian society where the inept ruling elites whose thrall for wealth is insatiable have, for decades, elevated corruption, impunity and all manner of infractions to national virtues.
It logically follows that Labour party which is poised to build a new society cannot reasonably be expected to be entirely insulated from the vagaries of social miasma that has engulfed the society for decades but must strive to galvanise requisite capacity to transcend the depraved social order and emerge from the wombs of the old society as a rejuvenated platform to usher in the much-needed new social order by building a society where integrity, moral rectitude, and equality of citizens will become the cherished norms.
We hold, therefore, that because the Labour party and its teeming members are committed to upturning decades of kleptocracy (government by thieves) or kakistocracy (government by the worst set of citizens) or both, it must necessarily produce positive internal energy to rid the party of corrupt elements and other miscreants that have infiltrated it.
In other words, the current contest between reactionary forces in the party who relish the deformed social order because they benefit from it and are desperate to sustain same cannot but come into direct conflict with progressive forces that will ultimately supplant it and triumph precisely because good must invariably overcome evil.
Which of course is to infer that the war against corruption in Labour party is a clear indication that it will eventually be repositioned to fulfill its historical mission of constructing a new society where no man will be oppressed.
This explains why while the other two dominant political parties in the country namely the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are safe sanctuaries for corrupt politicians, the Labour party is being impelled by the immutable laws of thesis and antithesis to weed out corrupt elements and social misfits in its fold.
Thus, instead of our enthusiasm for the building of a new society to be dampened by alleged colossal sleaze ravaging the party, we must instead renew our commitment to continue the battle to rid the party of corrupt individuals that have turned it into a broad spectrum of merchandise field where forging of cheques and signatures of candidates, buying and selling of party positions and elective offices are carried out without qualms.
All told, we hold that Labour Party will surmount its current trials, travails, and tribulations to become more formidable to build a modern society of our dreams as is the case in other civilized climes. The time to join the war against corruption in Labour Party is now. So, let us all stand up to be counted. I rest my case.
- Tony Masha is a Lagos-based journalist