2027: Lagos Labour Party strong despite Rhodes-Vivour’s exit, says Secretary

The Lagos State chapter of the Labour Party has said the exit of its 2023 governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, from the party will not affect its chances in the 2027 governorship race.

The party’s state Secretary, Sam Okpala, said this in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday.

When asked what the chance of the party is in the 2027 governorship race following Rhodes-Vivour’s defection to the African Democratic Congress, Okpala said the Lagos LP was not built around one person.

“It is very dangerous to build the destiny of a political party around an individual. So with or without Rhodes-Vivour, the party is still strong and formidable. It was not because of Rhodes-Vivour that the party was able to achieve what we achieved in 2023. The only thing is that he was a beneficiary of the efforts of the Labour Party, that is our position.”

Rhodes-Vivour dumped the LP in September to join the ADC, saying he believed the coalition had the capacity and platform to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress.

“We don’t have time, we need a party that is going to be ready to do the work, which is building a robust structure all the way down to the ward level with stability and a platform that can allow this work to be done without any distraction. So that is a very practical reason why we joined the ADC,” he said during an interview on Channels TV.

Okpala, however, boasted of the LP’s will to unseat the APC in Lagos come 2027, saying he does not believe the coalition has what it takes to do so.

“About the coalition, there is freedom of association as guaranteed in our Constitution. But for us as a party, we are not attaching much importance to it and we believe that nothing tangible will come from the coalition because we believe that the right coalition that can unseat or take power from the ruling party ought to be a coalition of opposition political parties, not a coalition of disgruntled politicians, who we know were part of the APC.

“We believe that it’s not the way to go.

“I strongly believe that unseating the ruling party is not a tea party. For the APC to be unseated, it needs serious strategy, it needs serious work and planning.”

He added, “It’s only the Labour Party that is positioned at the moment to take power from the ruling party in Lagos State. Let’s not make a mistake about the party, our party is still strong, intact and formidable, and at any moment from now, we will let the world, Nigerians and Lagos residents know what we have to offer the state.”

“For us as a party, we are going to field a governorship candidate, but we don’t want to rush; we are taking our time, we are doing our work.”