The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has described as a mark of ingratitude President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s failure to acknowledge its Founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, in the list of June 12 heroes rolled out in this year’s Democracy Day broadcast.
President of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, said the group worked for the President Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 elections and neither he nor his handlers had bothered to acknowledge OPC’s pro-Tinubu campaign one whole year after the new regime’s inauguration.
Lamenting that it took the family and estate of Dr. Fasehun to blow their father’s June-12 trumpet, Afolabi recalled that the Medical Doctor-turned-Activist had sacrificed his livelihood and liberty to fight for the disannulment of Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola’s mandate and the restoration of democracy through OPC and NADECO.
“Baba was jailed several times. Hundreds of innocent OPC members were killed. Some were arrested, jailed, maimed for life and extra-judicially slaughtered by evil agents of General Sani Abacha,” Afolabi recalled.
Afolabi, Late Fasehun’s former Deputy President, felt particularly pained that the organisation worked for the emergence of Tinubu in 2023, yet the group had been ignored since the President came into power.
“Just as Baba taught us, OPC regarded Tinubu as a Southern project and Yoruba interest; and we mobilised for his victory,” Afolabi lamented. “After the win, it appears like they used and dumped us.
“Are they neglecting OPC because we are not herdsmen, terrorists, bandits or militants who are being showered with Nigeria’s resources in the name of amnesty?”
OPC went on to slam current Fourth Republic politicians for ignoring Nigerians’ sufferings while allocating to themselves giant amounts of salaries and allowances as members of the Executive and the Legislature at the local government, state and national levels.
“Definitely, this Fourth Republic is far from the vision that the heroes of democracy hoped for, fought for and died for. Our democracy has been hijacked by soldiers of fortune, whose primary aim appears to be to milk the people’s commonwealth,” OPC said.
“Common Nigerians cannot afford petrol, gas, electricity. Commodities like pepper, tomatoes, rice and even garri have become luxury items. Entire families are joining the “JAPA” bandwagon to flee Nigeria. Youths are crossing and perishing in deserts and oceans just to escape from this country.
“Yet politicians carry on as if everything is normal. If politicians feel that they will not answer to man, they will surely answer to God.”
Afolabi described OPC as a legacy organisation.
He said: “OPC will be 30 years old in September 2024 and this Fourth Republic is only 25 years old. Clearly, Fasehun founded the group as a Special Purpose Vehicle for democracy; and he poured his entire resources to sustain the group. Eminent Nigerians like Beko Ransome-Kuti, Kudirat Abiola, Doyin Okupe, Obas and intellectuals joined OPC. Therefore, OPC is far from being a group of nonentities and we have a role to play in this current political dispensation.”
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