Saturday the 1st of December 2018
will be remembered as the day one of the foremost Nigerian tribalists passed
away. Reports say that Fredrick Faseun died at the age of 83 after many years
of battling with diabetes.
Unlike other leaders who are followed by
encomiums and prayers to their graves from all parts of the country, Fredrick
Faseun is only mourned by OPC thugs and of course politicians looking for
votes. Politics is such a detestable game that will make men of integrity like
Buhari to stoop so low as to mourn an acclaimed terrorist like Fredrick
Fasehun.
Fredrick Faseun was a medical doctor who was
supposedly trained to save lives. But because saving lives was not in his blood
he abandoned medical practice to found one of the deadliest criminal gangs in
Nigeria’s history. He did so in 1994 under the pretext of fighting the military
out of power after the annulment of June 12, 1993 election.
The Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) which Fasehun founded
has nine primary objectives stated in its constitution. These objectives revolve
around uniting the Yoruba people, educating them about their history and
mobilizing them for the achievement of self-determination and finding their
place in the world. There is nowhere allegiance to the Nigerian state is
mentioned or that the objectives shall be achieved peacefully. Democracy is not
mentioned anywhere in the objectives of OPC. This dispels the notion in some quarters that it
was Ganiy Adams that militarized OPC and that Fasehun was a peace-loving
democrat. It also shows that annulment of June 12 election was only used as a
smokescreen by Fasehun for the realization of an ulterior motive which was
exposed by the activities of his gang in the years that followed.
The Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit,
nongovernmental human rights organization, has accused OPC of being “responsible for numerous acts of
violence and its members have killed or injured hundreds of people. While
many of their most serious attacks were directed against Hausa, or people
suspected to be northerners, their victims have also included Igbo, Ijaw and
people from other ethnic groups.”
And The Human Rights Watch is
right. The attacks are many. But perhaps the most deadly ones took place during
the first term of Obasanjo (1999-2003). After taking over as the civilian
president in 1999 Obasanjo took many decisions to sideline northerners
especially those of the Islamic faith. That, no doubt, emboldened the OPC to
launch its many attacks on Northerners living in Lagos and other parts of the southwest.
The first major attack took place in Sagamu on the 17th July 1999. According
to official reports, over 70 northerners were killed by the OPC militia. No OPC
member was arrested for the massacre.
The Sagamu attack was followed by
another on the November 25 of the same year in Ketu/Mile 12 market. Over 100
people of Northern extraction including women and children were killed by the
OPC militia.
What followed the Mile 12 attacks was very sad for any Northerner
with an iota of pride. First, corpses of slain Northerners were prevented from
being taken to the North for fear of reprisal attacks on Yoruba who had already
sought refuge in various Military barracks in Northern states. The decision to
bury the victims in the south was said to be on the advice of Northern elders,
whatever that means. That would have been alright if the ‘elders’ had a plan
for their people, at least a plan to go to any length to make sure that
the OPC leaders were paid in their coin. Alas! There was nothing like that. Many of them were busy looking for favor from
their killer regime.
Secondly, for the same fear of reprisals, Obasanjo
Government arrested Fredrick Fasehun among other OPC leaders. They were taken
to court but after sometime the case file was said to be missing and Fasehun
was released, no thanks to Lagos state Government under Ahmad Tinubu and the
Obasanjo-led Federal Government.
OPC owes its survival to the goodwill it enjoys
from the leaders of Yoruba land for even after being declared a terrorist
organization by the United States and banned by Nigerian Government, OPC continued
to operate without let or hindrance with the full protection of Yoruba elders
and the state Governments in the southwest. For example, when along the line there
was a misunderstanding between Fasehun and Gani Adams it was one of the state
governors in the southwest who reconciled them.
From our experience with OPC, CAN, IPOB,
MOSSOB, etc. one would expect the Northerners to learn their lessons. We don’t.
The person who killed our brother yesterday is the same person we shall be
selling today when he joins one of the contraptions we call our political
party. There are today many of our killers or their protectors in those political
parties we blindly join and protect in the name of democracy.
The creator of Faseun is a just lord. As
Fredrick goes on to meet Him, we pray to Him to give the appropriate treatment
to the founder of the deadly OPC. Of course, He will.
