By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

AS minister of information until few weeks ago, Mr. Labaran Maku did everything while in office to situate the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan within the framework of the agenda of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It was in that context that Mr. Maku left office last October to seek the governorship ticket of the PDP in his native Nasarawa State. His bid for the job, however, ended on a sour note as Mr. Maku’s soon discovered that the oratory of the minister was of no use in the rough and rumble political jostling in his state.

Rejected by the PDP, Mr. Maku is now reportedly negotiating behind the scene to obtain the ticket of the Labour Party. Mr. Maku’s frustrating move to Labour Party is not a new development for a party that has over the past few years become an alternative political platform for stakeholders frustrated in the PDP.

Akala

Mr. Maku is not the only one engaged in such political gyration. Among others that have recently taken such steps are Mr. Tonye Princewill in Rivers State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel in Ogun State, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and followers of Governor Martins Elechi in Ebonyi State.

Before now, Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State, Senator Joshua Dariye in Plateau and Senator Andy Uba in Anambra State had also at different times used the Labour Party as a special purpose vehicle to address short-term political needs before retracing their steps to the PDP.

In the case of Senator Uba, his association with Labour Party even preceded his abortive use of the platform to contest the governorship election in 2010.

Distant observers

As the political leader of the PDP in Anambra State in 2007, some distant observers were confused when some trusted associates of Uba used the platform of the Labour Party to contest the 2007 general elections. In some cases, the Labour Party candidates won over PDP anointed candidates. However, those who were nearby alleged that those close to Uba who lost the PDP ticket were simply handed the Labour Party ticket with which they machine won the election for them that year.

Mimiko, Uba and Dariye after successfully using the platform of Labour Party to seek elective office returned to the PDP apparently due to the discomfort of isolation on the national scene. They were apparently big fishes trapped in the shallow waters of the Labour Party.

The seeming willingness of the leadership of Labour Party to trade the party ticket for apparent tokenism has not helped the image of the party that was originally founded by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC to give political fillip to workers in the political arena.

Even after the exit of the Dan Nwanyanwu led leadership under which most of the political infidelities were carried out, the succeeding leadership led by Abdulkadri Salam seemed to have trudged along the same pathway of political indiscretions.

*Ogboru

It is remarkable that organised labour seems to have now woken up from the slumber it has long been drenched in as it last month constituted a caretaker committee to take over the affairs of the party. The legality of that action, however, remains an issue.

National chairman of the caretaker committee, Comrade Salisu Mohammed at an interaction with newsmen at the weekend at the NLC headquarters repudiated the recent political alignments supposedly reached with recent defectors to the party.

The red card issued to the likes of Alao-Akala, Princewill, Great Ogboru in Delta State and followers of Governor Elechi is “don’t jump from frying pan to fire.” Comrade Mohammed said the party had decided to withdraw itself from the sponsorship of candidates for elections for the time being, a development that in the true sense would mean jumping from frying pan to fire for the political jumpers.