Leadership outweighs forceful capture of power, Abure to Nigerian politicians

…as Labour Party youths of Ajeromi wins big in youth awake tournament

The National Chairman of Labour Party (LP) Barrister (Dr.) Julius Abure has charged the Nigerian political Leadership class to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship as against rigging to win at all cost.

Speaking at the grand finale of the “Youth Awake Football Tournament” organized by Lagos State chapter of Labour Party tagged- Battle of Champions, played on a beautiful football pitch in Victoria Garden City (VGC) Eti -Osa, Barrister Abure hinted that people earnestly expect leadership and not forceful capture of power.

Abure harps on the importance of having the spirit of sportsmanship after his official kick-off of the ball to signal the commencement of the grand final match that featured Ajeromi Ifelodun youths team versus Eti-Osa youths of the party, having emerged best from the series of matches played amongst youths from the 20 local government wings of the party.

Abure said that,“In politics number one and two is the same ticket,if you have a governor there is a deputy governor and when you have a President there is a vice president, in the political parlance, it is one and the same ticket.

“It is a wonderful tournament and I urge other state chapters to run along with this wonderful initiative.

“ I know that Lagos is known as ‘eko for show’ but this is Lagos setting the pace, so I want to appreciate the Lagos executives for this, I congratulate them as well as the two local governments that have emerged for the grand finale of this tournament.

“I congratulate you for your painstaking commitment, I want to assure you that there are better days ahead and that the National Working Committee of our party has a keen interest in this tournament.

“They have mandated me to announce the sum of 2million naira to be appropriated by the state executives amidst the winning teams.”

On politics Abure reiterated that provision of leadership is germane.

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“It is not rigging elections to win that matters, being a President, Governor, Senator, House of Reps member and Chairman is not what matters,what matters is what you with the power.

“If you capture power and you don’t utilize it to affect the lives of the people, that power is useless, we are not in power yet but you can see what Lagos state is doing with sport.

“This is what we have continued to say that we are going to provide leadership by example. So I want to charge all other political parties to come and learn from Labour Party.”

Ajeromi youths emerged overall winner having top the chart in a penalty shoot out and scoring four out of the six shot at goal. Eti-Osa youths scored three making them come second on the row of winners, in the third place match between Ifako Ijaiye and Surulere LP youths Surulere takes the lead with a 2-1 scoreline.

On her part, the Lagos State Labour Party Chairman Pastor (Mrs.) Dayo Ekong said that the tournament was necessitated by the need to unify and also restore confidence in the party’s youths, who having experienced a lot of challenges in the previous elections seemingly recoiled into their shells.

“It is meant to restore the confidence of our youths after the very challenging election,we realize a lot of them went into their shells and we look for a way to bring them out of their shells.

“We have to put up for the first time in any political party a football tournament and now we are the trailblazers, now they are copying us other political parties are trying to put up football tournaments.

“This is not only for us to reawaken their confidence but also our goal is to unify all our youths fostering unity, harmony and hope for a brighter future.”

Appropriately the sum of N400,000 was annouced for third place winner, while N600,000 goes to the second position and N1million and a goldern trophy goes to the winner.

The Lagos State exco of the party were also decorated by the NWC in appreciation of their commitment and ingenous contributions tp the advancement of the party’s cause.