On January 24, 2024 a friend and I were at a supermarket in Benin City owned by a widow whose cosmopolitan sense was widened by living in all parts of Nigeria.

We went there to relax not with soft or hard drinks which we don't consume. We were therè for change of home environment.

As we sat there enjoying the kaleidoscopic scenery, some male adults barged into us.

Then, one of them burst out at us: : "Na una age category enjoy and later destroy dis our country. By September dis year we go show una pepper. Oppressors must go. Up Labour Party!!! We don win. We want Edo to be like Abia State where Dr Alex Otti of our Labour Party day in charge. Una no see di transformation taking place for di state. In just eleven months, him don do wetin Obaseki day struggle to do in seven and half years........"

We ignored the outburst since we are not politicians. Moreover, as a person I am not yet prepared for a comparative analysis of Otti and Obaseki. I am still gathering data on Otti.

So, I only asked if they are members of Labour Party in Edo.. .A loud affirmative response came from all of them.

Moment later, they settled down at the store and began to drink. Friendly banters, jokes and conversations followed in streams of animated consciousness. And, behold, I discovered they knew nothing about Labour Partyism in general and were enamoured by my explanations of the concept in historical past and contemporary times; as well as in thoughts, words and deeds.

That is how things became twisted. Yes, I had expected them to tell us a lot about the comprehensive story of their Labour Party. But the reverse was now the case. I was the one doing the education to their delight and appreciation. A case of reverse pedagogy!! Student becomes teacher!!!
Briefly, this is my presentation during my encounter with these Edo Labour Party afficinadoes. Read on.

God is providential universalist and a collectivist. He is not a godfather to anyone but God The Father to all irrespective of your spirituality, status, occupation, religion, political affiliation, culture, profession, race; social class or education. That is why He is total love exemplified.

Expectedly, He gives rain, light, sunshine, air, wind and other life fundamentals to all living and inanimate things without discrimination.

When you interprete this politically, this means God is a true socialist not a capitalist.

From my research studies, I see Edo Labour Party as one filled with capitalists pretentiously masquerading as socialists that labourist suppose to be to the outrage of God.. .Secondly, God is a consummate democrat. Recall that when the people of Israel were fed up with the theocratic and unpriestly heinous sins of Eli's family, they demanded a new way of governance.

They told God in unison:"Give us an earthly king! We now want democracy!! We no longer need your theocracy ruling us from heaven through Eli, Hophni and Phinehas"

God listened to their request and gave them untainted democracy with Saul as the first elected king of Israel.

So, based on this stòryline can we beat our chest to say Edo Labour Party members really chose their leaders in God's way democratically? . Oops, do the working class in Edo, aka labour, own the labour party? Has it not been hijacked by a few people like Olumide Akpata (SAN) and his bourgeois co-travellers bankrolling the party in Edo?

Well, in modern history, the old ways of the Labour Party is been abandoned. In the past, there is no way Akpata, who is not a working class and a socialist be in Labour Party let alone emerge as gubernatorial candidate for Edo Labour Party. He did because money, power and influence are the grammar of the party in Edo at a time the party is crowded by members who were disgruntled bonafide capitalists in APC and the PDP but a sought rehabilitation in the special purpose vahicle of Edo Labour Party.

Impliedly, Edo Labour Party is no ditterent from the APC and the PDP. All birds of the same plumage.

Under the strict old order, it is the working class that produces the leadership of the socialist Labour Party which may bear different political names at all levels.

Some examples, Lech Walesa was a dockworker before he became the President of Poland. Also, Nicholas Malduro the current President of Venezuela was a bus driver.

Oshiomole like them started off as a textile mill worker at the lower level of the job ladder before he ended up as the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and later the governor of Edo State.

But, I don't think Oshiomole is still a labour man or a working class man given his capitalist predispositions today where he still a labour activist, he won't be in the midst of capitalists in the APC. Naturally, he would have gravitated to the Labour Party the traditional play ground of labourists.

For recognition purposes, Oshiomole is a classic example of how people use working class ideas in his primary constituency to achieve elitist fame and popularity but go on to abandon it.

In a way, the classic novel 'ANIMAL FARM', an anthropomorphic satire by George Orwell captured this.

Infact, the tragedy of Edo Labour Party is that there are old veteran labourists in the state who should have been in it to add historical, intellectual and academic value to the party. But , alas, they are not in the party. Thus, the large majority of capitalist Edo youths in the party have no one to educate them on the tenets of socialism that is core to a true Labour Party.

To aggravate matters, the Edo Labour Party is not benefitting much from the NLC in Edo because its leadership under Odion Olaye is pro-PDP and Obaseki.

One is close to tears seeing Edo Labour Party in the clueless shape it is today in a state that produced great labour activists like Michael Imoudu , Lawrence Borha, Prof Festus Iyayi and so many others.

Earlier on, i wrote that the working class usually produce Labour Party leadership. True observation. However, there are instances when elites with socialists/laorsts ideology lead revolutions that grab power for use for the slaving working class. Of interest here is the Bolsheviks who toppled the Czars in 1917 in the Soviet Union and seized power.

Similarly, Fidel Castro took power from General Baptista in 1956. Today, the Soviet Union is no more, having collapsed in 1989 under Mikhail Gobachev. But Russia, a large chipotle of the old block, is still holding onto traditional socialism and laboutistideas even though it is with a softer, hue unlike it was in the stalinist era.

Cùba is carrying on with its socialism began in 1956 without the Castros.

In the case of Edo, can we say its leadership are there because of their socialist antecedents? Are they in office to promote the working class interest? If the party wins the 2024 governorship race, will they not run the state like the APC and PDP? Will Edo Labour Party even survive the altercations between the national party chairman Abure faction and that of Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC? So many questions for Edo Labour Party.

Well, one thing is apparent. The APC will be happy to see Edo Labòur Party torn to shreds while the PDP will be battĺing to save the hijacked party it is allegedly trying to use for electoral ambush and litigations against the APC during and after the election in September 2024.

End of my pedagogy to the Edo Labour Party aficionados.

They thanked me and left in silence, as i was pleased with my presentation which although brief, but enabled them drink deep from Alexander Pope's prierian spring of profound knowledge.