By Paul Dada
The trending word on the social media now is “gbajue”, courtesy of Professor Wole Soyinka who in an interview dismissed the Labour Party as a regional Party using gbajue tactics ( lies) to claim it won the election.
Soyinka did have a point considering the seeming pathological belligerence, characteristic insolence, thoughtless emotionalism and bitter disgruntlement of many Obidients.
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But I do not agree that the Labour Party is a regional one though it has yet to have a very remarkable national spread.
While I concede that majority of South Easterners have pitched their tents with Peter Obi, the Labour Party has made significant inroads to the Midldle Belt and South West especially Lagos.
It wasn’t just the Lagos-based Igbo that made Bola Tinubu lose the state in the presidential election. The gallant loss of Tinubu happened because Lagos Yoruba who are the majority in the state out of anger and frustration with the non-performong APC administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari worked with other ethinc groups in that state to work the magic against Tinubu.
No, you can’t dismiss a party like that as regional even if it has not gained much ground in the core northern states.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong in that party approaching the court to invalidate that election.
What is wrong is the brashness, the penchant to blackmail and the disposition by Obidients to browbeat and bully anyone including the judiciary who doesn’t think Obi and Labour Party have a strong case.
But I must say that the Labour Party has the potential to be the strongest opposition party if it plays it cards right. If it loses its case at the Supreme Court, the Obidient Movement/ Labour Party must organise itself for 2027 rather than continuously agonise over what it has convinced itself to be a stolen mandate. It must work towards enlightening and convincing those who don’t believe it rather than continue in that path of alienating people through bitterness and negativity. The Obidient movement must make friends and not enemies.
