2027: OPC Endorses Tinubu for Second Term, Urges North to Return Favour

The Frederick Fasehun faction of the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) has declared its support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in the 2027 presidential election.

The group made its position known on Saturday in Lagos during the celebration of its 32nd Founders Day and the inauguration of a new National Executive Council (NEC).

The OPC was founded on August 29, 1994, by a group of Yoruba nationalists and activists led by the late Frederick Fasehun, a medical doctor and human rights activist.

Speaking at the event, the re-elected President of the OPC, Wasiu Afolabi, said the organisation would support Tinubu in 2027 just as it did during his 2023 presidential campaign.

Afolabi said the group contributed to Tinubu’s victory in 2023, adding that the organisation’s founder had instilled in its members the principle of supporting any Yoruba person occupying the presidency.

“We contributed our quota to ensuring the victory of Tinubu in 2023. One lesson from Fasehun is that the organisation should regard any Yoruba man in office as OPC’s corporate project,” he said.

“As a result of this orientation that our founder gave us, and if the right atmosphere is created, we shall still queue behind President Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election.”

He also called on Nigerians from other regions to support Tinubu’s second-term ambition, saying this would enable the President to consolidate what he described as his visionary reforms.

Afolabi particularly appealed to the North to support Tinubu, describing the move as a reciprocal gesture for the support he said Tinubu gave to the late President Muhammadu Buhari during his two terms in office.

“The north especially should realise that it is payback time for the backing that Tinubu gave to late President Muhammadu Buhari’s two tenures of eight years,” he said.

Reflecting on the history of the OPC, Afolabi said the organisation was established during a period of national crisis following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola.

He described the annulment by the military government as an affront to the millions of Nigerians who voted in the election and, particularly, to the Yoruba people.

“Some 32 years ago when Dr Frederick Fasehun took the initiative to establish OPC, it was to fulfil a divine assignment. OPC was born as a child of necessity,” he said.

The OPC leader urged the President, state governors and lawmakers at both the national and state levels to intensify efforts to address the economic, social and security challenges confronting Nigerians.

He cited Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

Afolabi also offered the organisation’s support to government agencies in tackling insecurity across the South-West.

“We are ready to partner with relevant government agencies to secure the South-West from enemies within and enemies from outside,” he said.

On the 2027 elections, he urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to remain neutral and ensure that every vote cast by Nigerians is counted.

The chairman of the occasion, Wale Oshun, who also heads the OPC Board of Trustees, described the organisation as a major legacy organisation in Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggle following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election.

Oshun said the continued survival of the organisation eight years after the death of Fasehun was a testament to the late founder’s vision.

Hundreds of OPC members attended the event to mark the organisation’s 32nd anniversary and endorse Tinubu for a second term in office.