Except for any divine intervention, the Odua People’s Congress, (OPC) led by Dr Fredrick Faseun may have again split into two with a faction appointing Mr Lanre Adesope as the new National President of the Yoruba self-determination group. Over 2000 delegates of the OPC attended a congress held at Oshodi in Lagos on Wednesday where a new set of leaders emerged. The new set of leadership was put in place to spite the Executive Council set up barely two weeks ago by the founder, Dr Faseun.
The new leadership however retained Dr Faseun as the ‘Founder’ of the 19 year old group. “We set up the new leadership in response to democratic norms. We think it is wrong to have a leadership that does not believe in democracy or in the rule of law. We were compelled to reorganise the OPC so as to meet best global practices”, Sola Ajayi, the new Director of Publicity of the OPC stated. He said the new OPC will be re-energised to mobilise Yoruba people for self-determination. He said “Baba Faseun has tried his best. We have to move forward. Baba is old and we can’t wait to ensure OPC comes out stronger.”
The OPC had witnessed series of factionalisation in years, the latest being the fourth time that the group established in 1995 would be torn into shreds usually due to internal intrigues, lack of democracy and the complete lack of ideological training by its largely half-educated leaders.