GANI ADAMS AND HIS ANTICS

Comrade O.Odunayo[1st right]

OPC members at the press briefing

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I welcome you to this brief press conference on behalf of the Oodua Peoples Congress [OPC] under the leadership of our Founder and President, Dr Frederick Iseotan Fasehun.
In recent  times, we have been watching the deliberate falsehood been churned out by the belligerent leader of the breakaway  faction of the Congress, Mr Gani Adams, especially as regards the establishment/formation of the Oodua Peoples Congress.
We thought as  a young man who joined the Congress four after it was established by Dr Fasehun and other matured minds and the peace brokered by the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Gani would have come to his senses and come back to the fold.
Instead, he continued using abusive comment against the personality of our Founder and President who is older enough to be his father.
In Yoruba culture, you do not abuse nor slap your elder.
What Gani has been doing over the years is tantamount to slapping our founder and president and we want to say and warn that enough is enough, he should henceforth put a stop to his tantrums against Dr Fasehun, the Founder and President of Oodua Peoples Congress.
We are issuing this warning based on his latest attack on our leader published in the Saturday  Punch of April,20,2013.
Though, in the interview , he was quoted as saying  of Dr Fasehun Fasehun,:’’ He was my leader from the beginning........’’.
If at this point, he can publicly say that Dr Fasehun was his leader  from the beginning, why then should he continued abusing and attacking his leader in the media. Something must have gone wrong with him.
He should retrace his path to that of honour so that his motley following will not later turn against him for leading them into perfidy when the truth about who Gani Adams is, is later unfolded. To put the records straight, Gani Adams was never part of the foundation members of the Oodua Peoples Congress as he has consistently claimed.
As far back as 1994 in the early days of the OPC founded by Dr Fasehun, Gani Adams was not known to our president nor members of the Congress and he was neither  an officer of the Congress.
Gani came to be known to members in 1998 after the arrest of Dr Frederick Fasehun by the late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha during our meeting at Olusoga in Mushin, Lagos State when he contributed to discussions at hand.
It was after the release of Dr Fasehun by the former Head of State, General Abubakar   that Gani Adams was made the Deputy National Co-ordinator due to his vocal contributions at meetings.
It was the duo of Evangelist Kunle Adesokan, the Secretary General of OPC and Alhaji Lawal, the then Baba Oodua that introduced Gani Adams to members as Deputy National Co-ordinator  in December 1998 during a rally in Ondo town.
Apart from these two personalities, other notable founding members of the Congress include- Dr Beko Ransome Kuti of the blessed memory, who was the first National Treasurer of the Congress; Alhaji Sule popularly known as ‘Gaari Ifo’, Mr Makinde, the then Chairman of the Congress in Lagos State, Mr Alaka and Mr Gbenga of Ondo State were all in the Congress before Gani came to limelight.
How can he then be claiming that he was part of the foundation members of the Congress which he joined four years after its formation? 
It was on March 1st 1999 that Gani formed a break-away faction of OPC for reasons best known to him.
On May 15, 1999 at Adamasingba Stadium convention of the Oodua Peoples Congress, members present adopted declaration  and adopted Dr Frederick Iseotan Fasehun as the Founder cum President of the Congress, Chief Orebote as the Vice President and Kayode Ogundamisi formerly of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria[FAAN] as the Secretary General and Alhaji Jimoh Toyin as Organising Secretary of OPC.
The question again is was he[Gani] in the Congress or known to members before the aforementioned officers of the Congress? Definitely No!
It was after a crisis caused by Gani Adams members in Mushin in February 2005 in which our members were attacked and we retaliated that he went to the then Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State to plead for his intervention that a peace treaty was arrived at and Gani Adams was made the National Co-ordinator while Dr Frederick Fasehun retained his position as the Founder and National  President of Oodua Peoples  Congress.
If Gani is truly a Yoruba from Ondo State, he should learn to respect elders and abide by treaty jointly endorsed. It should also be noted that Gani Adams, who was a carpenter by profession, solicited for and given a loan some years back by Dr Fasehun to purchase motorcycle[Okada] and up till today he has not refunded the loan.
The position of National Co-ordinator nor any other offices in the Congress are not permanent nor a family affairs, it can be revoked at any time and given to other deserving member[s] of the Congress.
A word is enough for the wise! On his attack on Dr Fasehun as regards his re-launching of the Unity Party of Nigeria[UPN], again Gani missed the point.
Before the formation of OPC, Dr Fasehun was a founding member of NADECO which gave birth to our present  democratic dispensastion and if he felt that the democracy he and others fought for is not what is being practised today, he has the right to join, float or resuscitate any political party of his choice.
So, re-launching  UPN as Dr Fasehun did recently is not an offence nor aberration, it is the inalienable right of every Nigerian. UPN is definitely different from Oodua Peoples Congress.
Dr Fasehun’s leadership of  UPN does not in anyway affect the objectives and operations of OPC as an organisation set up to protect and defend the interest of the Yoruba Nation. 

*This address was delivered last Friday,26,April in Lagos by Comrade Ogunmoye Odunayo,Deputy National Co-ordinator