Otunba Gani Adams is the leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC). In this interview with selected journalists recently, he says that the struggle for the emancipation of the Yoruba race is a collective one.
Excerpts:
How would you react to calls for OPC to repel attacks on the South-West?
Well, we are aware of these calls. But the comments of some people in Yoruba land that do not even know the efforts of OPC are not helping matters. We would like to first put such people on the same page with our organisation. We have been doing that for a long while now but some people pretend not to know our impact.
The attacks are things that are agitating the minds of all that are in Yoruba land, not only the Yoruba people but everyone that resides in the South-West region of this country. This is because those who attack us do not isolate other people from the other regions.
Everyone living in the South-West is facing the same security threat. It is a known fact today that the Fulani herdsmen and some criminal elements from the Ijaw nation are threatening us. Mind my words, I don’t mean the genuine freedom fighters but the criminals among them.
But, the question I have asked repeatedly is: Who knows the water better than Gani Adams? I celebrate Olokun, the owner of water. But again, if we rely on what some Yoruba elders and politicians are doing or saying about us, we will be frustrated in our struggle. We will just have to do the little we can do so that history will be kind to us.
Is your organisation planning to fight back soon?
Well, we have not come to that yet. All I am saying is that the attacks on South-West is unfortunate and highly disappointing. First, it was the Fulani herdsmen and now the militants who many for whatever reason have chosen to call suspected pipeline vandals.
This is something we do not expect to happen from our brothers in the Niger Delta because we remain the most dependable ally that supports their struggles. We have always been there for them. We were there when they were fighting for resource control.
We never antagonised them but have continued to help push their cause. Even during the National Conference, we gave them more than enough backing and the needed support because we believed they were on the right track.
And most front-liners in their struggle for justice started from Lagos. People like Ken Saro-Wiwa, Oronto Douglas and even Joseph Evah, all of them had their training in Lagos before moving to the Niger Delta. But I know that those who are involved in these acts are criminals. They are not products of the real freedom fighters from that region.
What would be the reason for the resurgence of their deadly attacks on innocent citizens?
Well, their reasons may be diverse. I only know that the little time we handled the pipeline contracts, we were able to scare them out of sight. We chased them away from the riverine areas and they couldn’t penetrate the surrounding communities and their criminal activities reduced drastically.
Anybody that monitored from March 16 to June last year will attest to that. During the said period, we never had these kinds of ugly incidents that have become rampant today. They were so frustrated because we effectively prevented them from doing their illegal oil bunkering business.
That was the time they moved deep into the waters and occasionally shoot into the communities. It was during one of such attacks that they hit one pregnant Yoruba woman from Ekiti State because we didn’t allow them to continue to siphon fuel illegally. But you know, Yorubas are very complex in nature.
What do you mean complex in nature?
They are the only race that I have seen that play with their lives and property in the name of politics. They are the only people that when others are threatening with arrows, guns and are killing them, they would start calling press conferences.
Some would rush to the courts even when they know that the country they live in is such that these criminal elements do not believe in law and order. Although, sometimes the long hand of the law may catch up with them but they would have destroyed a lot.
So, what happened in Ikorodu essentially drew attention because of the high causality figure recorded in those incidents, especially the one where over 50 people were killed. Similar things have been happening in the other riverine communities with many pretending not to know about it.
The Ibafo axis has been a theatre of war for some time now. This is not the first time if truth must be told. I can tell you authoritatively that some of these communities are now ghost areas – Elepete for instance.
Why do you think they are targeting these communities?
From what we gathered and have seen happening, I think their target is to overrun and take over all the communities in the riverine areas of South-West. But they are playing with fire because when we decide to face them, it won’t take three hours to crush them.
Before we use five per cent of our force, people will no longer remember that such criminals ever came to the communities. It has happened before. This is not the first time the Ijaw people are daring us or let’s say the criminals from the Niger Delta.
I won’t like to narrow it to the Ijaws. It happened in Ajegunle; you still remember what happened there. I believe it’s time for all Nigerians to behave themselves properly anywhere they find themselves. There is the need for people to subject themselves to the customs and traditions of their host communities, and understand not only their way of life but other peculiarities that would help people coexist peacefully.
People should live in a friendly way with their hosts in any environment they find themselves. With what is happening now, we need to realise that there is a lot of threat that surround us in the South-West. We were still studying the activities of the rampaging Fulani herdsmen and others masquerading as kidnappers and now pipeline vandals have joined.
Why do you think the law enforcement agents have been unable to repel these criminal elements in recent time?
Have they ever been able to properly do their job? Things have got so bad to the extent that these criminals confronted and engaged the security details of a sitting deputy governor. Or are you not aware that the security convoy of the Ogun State Deputy Governor was attacked while on inspection tour of these communities and the police couldn’t do anything. The law enforcement agents of the nation should tell the whole world how many of these criminals they have been able to arrest thus far.
Have they been able to apprehend those that massacred over 150 people in Ikorodu recently? The President (Muhammadu Buhari) was sending a condolence message to the Saudi Arabian authorities, but how many people died there? Less than 10. He did the same thing during the shooting in the USA but has virtually turned his eyes off to what happened in Ikorodu and the other communities of late.
I think it is time the President and his government started recognising that lives in Nigeria are also precious and valuable. I am not saying that he should not sympathise with other nations in times of trouble but charity they say should begin from home. Your citizens first like the Americans would say.
Are these the reasons your organisation has been reluctant in acting as many had expected?
Well, we are a bit reluctant about these issues because Yorubas are a very sensitive race. During the last election, they called us different names. I was in Akure a month ago to give a lecture. I ran through my lecture topic giving to me and during the question and answer time, the journalists present, mostly from the Yoruba nation were visibly angry with what is happening in many Yoruba communities, particularly the activities of the Fulani herdsmen.
They wanted to know what the plans of OPC were and for how long I was going to fold my arms and allow the situation degenerate further. And I answered them that if I had decided on reprisals, I might not have been in their midst that day.
Assuming when our member was killed in Akure and we reacted and killed 10 or 20 of them, even the police commissioner of that state would not allow me to enter into Akure let alone of giving any kind of lecture. I also told them that it was time every hand was on deck; it should not be only OPC but a collective effort.
But, many look up to OPC for action at times like this?
Yes, you are correct but we should also not lose sight of the activities of some Yoruba political elites. There are those of them who would always prefer to finance secret cult groups and area boys that they can use for nefarious activities to help them achieve their political goals as against the goals of the entire race.
By so doing, they are weakening the group that is fighting for them. The group that fought for this democracy they now enjoy today. The role of OPC from 1994 to 1999 was well known to everyone. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in power, I remember vividly how Ghali Umar Na’Abba planned to impeach him. And the late Olusegun Agagu sent somebody to me and followed with calls.
He pleaded that OPC should lend its voice for the sake of the Yoruba nation. I was a bit reluctant but we eventually moved in to save the day. What did we do? Only two advertorials in some national dailies warning: enough with legislative rascality, and that was it. Before then most Yoruba politicians had supported Na’Abba in his quest to unseat Obasanjo.
The election for his second term in office was just five months away then. By the time the adverts appeared in the National Assembly the second day, those Yorubas supporting the impeachment pulled out and Na’Abba became jittery. He later alleged that OPC was coming to invade them at the National Assembly. And that was the end of that.
But, what did we get in return? Obasanjo paid back by hounding me into Kuje and later Kirikiri Maximum Prisons for a period of 14 months. That was after two years that we saved him from humiliation. That is a Yoruba man for you.
Is that why you are bitter about some Yoruba politicians?
It also happened during the last elections. The Lai Mohammeds of this world also lied against OPC. Two days to the last presidential election, he lied against us that we were planning to merge with the Nigerian Army to rig the elections and that we had already been given uniforms. He did not stop there.
He also said that I met with former President Goodluck Jonathan, Musiliu Obanikoro and Bode George, to rig the governorship election against Akinwunmi Ambode. The third was when we planned to protest against former INEC chief, Atahiru Jega, over shortage of PVCs in the South-West, creation of more poll-ing units against the South as well as underage registration in the North.
But at the end of the day our people twisted it against us. They also alleged that we were hitting the billboard of both Ambode and Buhari, tearing their postal and brandishing dangerous weapons. Now, the same OPC they said betrayed them, that they called names; now there are security threats to the Yoruba land, you are calling the same OPC that you were trying to weaken.
They even sent some people, who left the organisation to be insulting me, calling me names. They said that I collected money from Muammar Gaddafi of Libya to destabilise Nigeria. If not for God, do you think the organisation will still be strong enough to defend the Yoruba? Another angle is that we dissected the issue after the Ikorodu attacks and remember that we h a v e other projects on our hands.
What are these projects?
Apart from OPC, we have Olokun Festival Foundation that is being used to promote our culture and most of the Yoruba monarchs are being carried along. There is the other one abroadthe Yoruba Progressive Union. The day of the Ikorodu incident, we were already at the airport going to Napoli, Italy, to launch the 71 chapter as part of the countries that we have the union.
So, we now thought it over, and said, if I give an order to our members in Ikorodu to strike back at the criminals, and if they get casualty of up to 10 to 15 people, the media will rush to that scene, take pictures and flash it on the front page on the day of the launch in Italy. How do you think the people who were supposed to grace the occasion would view it? The international community is also watching.
So, we put all that into consideration and decided to be a bit tactical about the whole issue. We are learning from our past deeds. It won’t be difficult for the police to come after us asking questions on how we got our guns and ammunition and no one would come to our defence. So, that is one of the reasons we are becoming careful this time around.
We are not saying we are not in the picture or no longer ready to pay the prize of Yorubas but we will allow Yorubas to be clear about it. It’s not also that we are so scared to fight for the race; not that we are jittery or that the OPC that normally does it for them is no longer there. But we have to understand that this struggle is a collective one.
Those of them that are not members of OPC must sympathise with the cause of the organisation. However, if these attacks continue, OPC will have no other option than to do what is expected of it to defend its people. Source: Today
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