October 31, (THEWILL) – The Pan – Yoruba Group, Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC has reiterated the need for immediate restructuring of Nigeria.
Speaking during the inauguration of the OPC new executive in Lagos, the new OPC President, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi said President Muhammadu Buhari must realise that Nigeria urgently needed restructuring because according to him, no nation, with its complexity and diversity could be welded together by fear, by force and by injustice.
He said: “OPC supports restructuring. If the Nigerian government continues to ignore the cry for restructuring, it will only result in more agitation by more people for everybody to go their separate ways, saying to prevent this, Nigeria must be restructured along the lines of True federalism, which formed the basis of its Independence in 1960.
“If President Muhammadu Buhari will not adopt the 2014 Confab report and others, then he should urgently package a National Conference to work out an acceptable Federal Constitution adding that “Without this, Nigeria should dissolve peacefully and let all the people go their separate ways.”
The new OPC leader also warned those he accused of encouraging foreigners to invade and oppress true Nigerians, saying, the triumph of evil over good would only be temporary.
He warned: “Nigerians who support foreign herdsmen to kill, rape and kidnap local farmers and indigenes will only endanger themselves. The displacement of native Nigerians from their God-given lands will not be allowed in the South, the East, the West or even the North.
“OPC asks the Nigerian Armed Forces to refuse to become instruments of injustice and oppression against Nigerian people. Instead, all the Security Agencies should go after all the evil foreign invaders and their supporters. OPC pledges its support to the law enforcement agencies to help maintain security based on equity and social-justice.”
Afolabi said that the government must immediately stop hunting and persecuting those agitating for a separate nation, such as Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, as their right to demand self-determination was guaranteed by international conventions that Nigeria signed.
“OPC recommends that the government should formulate inclusive policies that will convince agitators and separatists that Nigeria is worth sustaining and worth living for. The government must show that Nigeria is not for foreign Fulani herdsmen and their evil sponsors; but that Nigerian land is for Nigerian people,” the group’s President said.
Chairman of the occasion, Hon. Wale Oshun urged OPC to continue to honour Fasehun’s legacies and ideals together with his ideological comrade, the Late Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti.
He said: “Fasehun set out to protect the interest of the Yoruba at a crucial time in the nation’s history. The new leaders and all members of OPC owe the Yoruba people to continue to render this service by upholding social justice for all and sundry.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
