The Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) family of the late Dr Frederick Fasehun has declared support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
The group made its position known on Saturday at its 32nd Founders’ Day celebration held at Apata Field, Okota, Lagos, where it also inaugurated a new National Executive Council (NEC).
The re-elected President of the OPC, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, pledged that members of the organisation would work for Tinubu in 2027, just as they did during the 2023 presidential election.
Afolabi said the OPC contributed to Tinubu’s victory in 2023 and would support his re-election if the right atmosphere was created.
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.”
The chairman of the occasion and Chairman of the OPC Board of Trustees, Hon. Wale Oshun, described the organisation as a major legacy of Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggle following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
Oshun, a former member of the House of Representatives and a chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which led the struggle against the annulment, said the continued existence of the OPC eight years after the death of Fasehun was a tribute to the founder’s vision.
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Going down memory lane, Afolabi recalled the circumstances that led to the formation of the 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 eight 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 NADECO, the OPC “paid the price in sorrow, tears and blood,” adding that hundreds of its members were lost during the struggle.
Afolabi said the organisation had spent the past 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,” he said.
Afolabi urged the Federal Government, state governments and lawmakers to tackle the rising cost of living, unemployment and insecurity.
“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 said.
The OPC president also offered the organisation’s support to government agencies in tackling insecurity in the South-West.
He said, “We are ready to partner with relevant government agencies to secure the South-West from enemies within and enemies from outside.”
On the 2027 elections, the OPC urged the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies to remain neutral and ensure that the votes of Nigerians are counted.