The Labour Party (LP) has declared its readiness to commence campaigns for the 2027 general elections in line with the timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ken Asogwa, disclosed this in a telephone interview, saying the party was prepared to campaign for elective positions from the governorship and state assemblies to the National Assembly and presidency.
“We are fully ready to commence our campaigns for elective office from the Governorship, State and National Assemblies up to the Presidency,” Asogwa said.
He noted that the party’s presidential candidate participated in the signing of the peace accord held at the Ahmed Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja.
According to him, the LP was also concerned about what it described as attempts by some southern governors to frustrate opposition parties through what it considered unreasonable charges for campaign billboards.
“We are also aware of attempts by some southern governors to frustrate opposition parties by imposing unreasonable fees for campaign bill boards in their states. We are also aware that opposition parties are already challenging this absurdity in court,” he said.
Asogwa said the development was particularly concerning because it was happening in some southern states.
“It is sad that all of this is happening mostly in the Southern States. This is one of the reasons why we cautioned against granting this set of governors powers to operate state police,” he said.
He added, “The state police is yet to take off but Nigerians can now see how repressive some governors can be even with the current powers they enjoy.”
The LP spokesman said the party’s campaigns would focus on issues rather than personal attacks.
“Our campaigns at all levels will be issue based and devoid of attacks on individuals. We have the most organised structure across Nigeria. Our institutional membership is second to none,” he said.
Asogwa said the LP’s membership base was strengthened by its relationship with organised labour.
“No other political party has the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, as statutory members,” he said.
He added that the party had supporters across wards, local governments and states.
“If you go round every ward, in every local government, in every state, you will find a serving or retired civil servant, trade craft personnel who is part of our political movement. We are in this race to win and form government,” he said.
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Hunger Cannot Be Wished Away by Numbers on Paper, ADC Tells Tinubu
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged the Federal Government over rising food prices, arguing that declining headline inflation offers little relief to Nigerians still struggling to afford basic necessities.
The party said the true measure of economic recovery should be the ability of households to afford food and other essentials rather than statistical improvements in headline inflation.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of focusing on headline inflation while failing to adequately address the rising cost of food.
“Hunger cannot be wished away by numbers on paper,” the party said.
The ADC was reacting to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which showed that headline inflation moderated from 15.91 per cent in June to 15.43 per cent in July.
Food inflation, however, rose from 17.52 per cent in June to 20.31 per cent in July year-on-year.
On a month-on-month basis, food inflation also increased from 3.75 per cent in June to 5.56 per cent in July.
The party said the figures demonstrated a widening gap between official economic indicators and the realities faced by households.
“We are, however, concerned that the government has continued to stubbornly focus on this statistical indicator, while ignoring the more serious indicator, which confirms that staple foods are still beyond the reach of ordinary citizens,” the ADC said.
Abdullahi also cited an earlier report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which, according to the party, estimated that about 35 million Nigerians were facing acute food insecurity, with millions of children at risk of malnutrition.
The ADC challenged the Federal Government to explain why Nigerians continued to struggle to afford food if its economic reforms were delivering the expected results.
“If the government’s economic reforms are working, why are Nigerians still finding it increasingly difficult to afford food?” Abdullahi asked.
The party said the administration should be willing to acknowledge when its approach was no longer producing the desired outcome.
“At some point, a responsible government must be willing to admit that it has reached the limits of its capacity and even its best approach has not yielded the desired results,” it said.
The ADC, however, said it had alternative proposals, including treating food security as a national security issue and restructuring agricultural interventions around staples most consumed by Nigerians.
It said an ADC government would focus on reducing the cost of fertiliser, seeds, machinery, diesel, transportation and agricultural financing to make food production cheaper.
The party also identified insecurity as a major challenge to agricultural production, saying farmers must be able to safely access their farms, harvest their crops and transport produce to markets.
It proposed measures to reduce the cost of moving food from farms to markets by tackling poor roads, insecurity and multiple levies that increase the final cost of food.
The ADC further proposed a transparent national food reserve and strategic buffer system that would release essential staples when prices rise sharply and purchase produce from Nigerian farmers when prices fall.
“The responsibility of government is not to explain that contradiction away. It is to fix it,” the party said.
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