The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) family of Dr. Frederick Fasehun, on Saturday marked its 32nd Founders Day, inaugurating a new National Executive Council (NEC) and publicly declaring support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
On behalf of the organisation, OPC’s re-elected President, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, pledged their support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election, saying they would work for him the same way they did for his first shot at the presidency in 2023.
Chairman of the occasion held at Apata Field in Okota, Lagos, Hon. Wale Oshun, who heads OPC’s Board of Trustees, said that the group remained a foremost legacy organisation in Nigeria’s struggle for democracy after the Military annulled the June 12, 1993 election of Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola.
Oshun said that it was a glowing tribute to the Founder, Dr. Fasehun’s vision that the organisation had continued to thrive eight years after the leader died.
Afolabi affirmed OPC’s decision to back Tinubu for the 2027 polls.
He said: “We contributed our quota to ensuring the victory of Asiwaju Tinubu in 2023. One lesson from Dr. Fasehun is that the organisation should regard any Yoruba man in office as OPC’s corporate project.
“As a result of this orientation that Baba gave us, and if the right atmosphere is created, we shall still queue behind President Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election.
“We also urge the other regions to support the President’s second-term bid to help him perfect the visionary reforms he has embarked upon. The North especially should realise it is payback time for the backing Asiwaju gave to Muhammadu Buhari’s two tenures of eight years.”
Going down memory lane, Afolabi recalled the national crisis that brought about the formation of OPC in August 1994.
He said: “Some 32 years ago when Dr. Frederick Fasehun took the initiative to establish OPC, it was to fulfil a divine assignment. OPC was born as a child of necessity. The June 12 mandate of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola had been rubbished and stolen by the Military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. It was not only an insult to the 8 million Nigerian voters who had given that mandate to MKO, it was especially a direct insult to the over 40 million-strong Yoruba race.
“Dr Fasehun dared the devil. He gave birth to OPC as a vehicle for Oodua sons and daughters to wash off the insult, the mockery and the stereotype cast upon them as a race lacking the courage to fight and reject this collective humiliation. OPC arose to fight injustice.”
According to him, in collaboration with the umbrella pro-democracy body NADECO, OPC “paid the price in sorrow, tears and blood. We lost hundreds of warriors. They will never be forgotten.”
Afolabi said that the group spent the last 32 years in the trenches of struggle, sacrifice, resilience, transformation and growth.
“Today, it will be impossible to tell the story of Nigeria’s democratic journey without acknowledging the contributions of OPC and its individual members who stood against military authoritarianism. The democratic freedoms we enjoy today were paid for by the limbs, liberties, livelihoods and lives of our members, hand in hand with others of similar courage,” Wasiu said.
He went on to challenge the government to tackle the problems of high cost of living, unemployment and insecurity.
Afolabi pleaded: “We urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the governors and all national and Federal legislators to promote policies, programmes and projects that will tackle these prevailing issues as a matter of national emergency. They should remember that the Nigerian Constitution they all swore to uphold says in Section 14(2)(b): ‘The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.’”
He also offered the assistance of OPC towards solving the “monster problem of insecurity,” saying: “We are ready to partner with relevant government agencies to secure the South-West from enemies within and enemies from outside.”
Concerning the 2027 elections, OPC urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies to maintain a neutral role and to ensure that the votes of every voting Nigerian counted.
