{"id":199142,"date":"2026-04-20T18:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:32:45","slug":"obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair","title":{"rendered":"Obi&#8217;s Absence Won&#8217;t Weaken LP Structure Says Vice Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party (LP ) Ceekay Igara, has dismissed concerns that recent defections to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) could weaken the party\u2019s chances in the 2027 elections.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Igara said the Labour Party\u2019s 2023 electoral performance was built on a strong institutional foundation, not solely on the influence of its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeter Obi made tremendous contributions to the popularity of the Labour Party, but it was based on the solid foundation already laid by the party. Out of 19 political parties, people assessed the options and chose Labour Party because they saw the structure we had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Igara revealed that Obi\u2019s emergence as the party\u2019s candidate followed intense internal negotiations, noting that several aspirants initially opposed his candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was fought very hard to make him the candidate. He was not very popular within the party at the time because he had just joined. It took the intervention of the national leadership to persuade other aspirants to step down,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>He further attributed the surge in youth support during the 2023 elections to wider civic engagement, particularly the EndSARS movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe movement that supported us was already there. EndSARS aligned with Labour Party because of the groundwork we had done. That was why it became a movement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On Obi\u2019s reported alignment with another political platform, Igara said the true test would be whether the same level of support could be replicated outside the Labour Party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that he has moved on, let us see if what was achieved in 2023 can be replicated on another platform. That is when the difference will be clear,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He maintained that the party remains focused on consolidating its base ahead of the next election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are working to strengthen the party to perform better than in 2023. Beyond the \u2018Obedient\u2019 enthusiasm, the real measure is electoral victory, how many governors did we win?\u201d he queried.<\/p>\n<p>The remarks come amid shifting alliances and ongoing recalibration within Nigeria\u2019s opposition landscape as parties begin positioning ahead of the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party (LP ) Ceekay Igara, has dismissed concerns that recent defections to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) could weaken the party\u2019s chances in the 2027 elections. Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Igara said the Labour Party\u2019s 2023 electoral performance was built on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":199141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-199142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Obi&#039;s Absence Won&#039;t Weaken LP Structure Says Vice Chair - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party (LP ) Ceekay Igara, has dismissed concerns that recent defections to the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obi&#039;s Absence Won&#039;t Weaken LP Structure Says Vice Chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Vice Chairman of the Labour Party (LP ) Ceekay Igara, has dismissed concerns that recent defections to the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T17:06:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:32:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1776709829.715778.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Obi&#8217;s Absence Won&#8217;t Weaken LP Structure Says Vice Chair\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-20T17:06:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-20T18:32:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\"},\"wordCount\":378,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1776709829.715778.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/obis-absence-wont-weaken-lp-structure-says-vice-chair\",\"name\":\"Obi's Absence Won't Weaken LP Structure Says Vice Chair - 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