AFOLABI GAMBARI
Life’s transformation can prove very crucial for some individuals. Without any shred of doubt, the authentic leader of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Iba Gani Adams, is one particular person that has benefitted immensely from such transformation and he cannot deny it.
Some 24 years ago, Adams was a crude personality seeking recognition through the militant wing of the OPC. Brute force was his forte and he expressed it with unbridled notoriety. The spectacle of him in bare torso and in a handcuff after he was reined in by then president Olusegun Obasanjo said everything about his self-inflicted travails. But if there was anything he grossly lacked at that time, it was erudition. Nor could he even pretend to have erudition.
Times have changed. Adams is now refined, reverred and influential. Undisputably too, he is the reigning Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland i.e Field Marshal of the Yoruba Army. He has also acquired erudition admirably, so much so that he can analyse the prevailing socio-economic condition of Nigeria and make his expression accordingly. On September 10, he released what he called “an open letter to President Bola Tinubu on the State of the Nation”.
Demonstrating his acquired demographic knowledge, he declared in the letter that there are “more than 65 million Yoruba of south-west in Nigeria, including Edo, Delta, Kwara and Kogi states”, saying he wrote the letter on their behalf. For effect, he also said there are altogether “more than 200 million people in Nigeria”, all of whom he also said represented in his letter.
He rubbed in the much vaunted blessings of Nigeria, just in case some people have forgotten: “I don’t know any country in the world that God has blessed, in terms of natural and human resources, like Nigeria.” He also served a reminder that “Nigeria and Nigerians were badly led and resources selfishly managed” by past leaders.
He had a target to hit in his letter. Hear him: “Mr. President, to say the truth without minding whose ox is gored, you have really disappointed many Nigerians who thought you were the messiah they were waiting for.”
But he was not finished yet. Hear him again: “When Buhari left on May 29 2023, many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief that insecurity would soon become history. Pitiably today, from the north to the south, east to the west, the rate at which Nigerians are being abducted and some killed, even after ransom was paid, it was as if these blood-thirsty maniacs have just been unleashed on Nigerians from the hottest part of hell.”
On human rights, Adams was unsparing on Tinubu. He scored him zero. And he was direct: “Now that you are in government, protest has suddenly become a criminal offence.”
In further demonstration of his erudition, Adams portrayed his knowledge of 20th century history in firing a question to Tinubu. Hear him yet again: “Your Excellency, do you remember an Austrian-German who became the Commander-in-Chief in Germany in 1933?” Then he answered the question: “Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. Hitler, an elected democrat, quickly transformed a democratic republic into a constitutional dictatorship. The Fuhrer vowed to destroy democracy through the democratic process. And he did with the destruction of Germany in 1945. Before the destruction, the Nazi leader disabled, then dismantled the Weimar Republic. The Fuhrer crushed political opposition, destroyed the economy and ultimately undermined Germany’s democratic structures. When Hitler became history on April 30 1945, Germany was in total ruins.”
Adams said he could link Hitler’s Germany of 1945 to Tinubu’s Nigeria of 2024. Just that he could not establish the link in very concrete terms. Perhaps, he glossed over this in his letter.
Six days had barely passed when, on September 16, a group within the Oodua Peoples Congress, named New Era OPC, dissociated itself from what it called scathing attack launched by Adams against President Tinubu.
The group’s President, Rasak Arogundade, said in a statement that Adams merely reveled in sour grapes in his remarks on the Tinubu administration.
The splinter group delved into history to drive home the point that it was out to reduce Adams to rubble in the defence of Tinubu: “Where Nigeria is today is the result of several years of mismanagement of the economy by successive governments, beginning from the time of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and especially more so during the military era between 1984 and 1999 when governmental and executive lawlessness was made a norm; a tradition which still carries on today.” Apparently, the group did not remember that Tinubu promised “Renewed Hope”, upon which he rode to the presidency in 2023. But how did they forget?
In an undisguised tirade, the group unleashed personal attack on Adams: “The truth about Gani Adams and his letter to Tinubu is that Gani is an opportunistic buccaneer and mercenary whose only goal is self-aggrandisement. Those who are close enough to him or who have had reason to transact business with him will know and can confirm this.” Whatever this particular remark had got to do with Adams’ “State of Nation” letter, only this group can explain.
Despite Adams’ erudition, the group still debased his already demonstrated knowledge of politics and history, saying, “Gani, being unlettered, is ignorant of the consequence of his ill-advised action”.
Finally, the New Era OPC removed the lid from its own face, according to the statement: “It is no secret that Gani is a sworn enemy of Asiwaju Tinubu. This has been so since Tinubu discovered Gani to be a buccaneer and distanced himself from him.”
The foregoing, as amplified by New Era OPC, suggests that there are experts in the Tinubu administration that adept at splitting united groups through the divide and rule tactics. Those experts have now infiltrated the OPC as a group fighting for the interests of the Yoruba ethnic group. But there is nothing to suggest that the last has been seen.
