As part of his mission to further unite and maintain peace in Yorubaland, Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II has begun moves to merge all factions of Yoruba group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) into one.
To ensure the realisation of the plan, the highly revered Yoruba Oba we gathered has urged a factional leader of group, Gani Adams to step down from his position as the National Coordinator of the group in order for peace to reign.
Gani Adams who had since last year being making efforts to retain his position as the National Coordinator of the group; we gathered was told by the Oba to step down.
Corroborating the story, a statement by the National Coordinating Council of the group commended the royal father for urging Gani Adams to resign as the National Coordinator of OPC in order to put an end to the lingering crisis rocking the congress.
NCC in the statement asserted that the monarch made the disclosure during a meeting with them in Ife on Monday.
NCC described the Ooni’s statement as a welcome development, saying it was the only way to resolve the leadership crisis that had been bedridden the Yoruba socio-cultural group.
‘Ooni’s position was for peace to reign in the congress as the position of National Coordinator of OPC should be based on tenure’.
NCC stated: “His Royal Majesty has made us understand that it is only the royal fathers and other traditional title holders that die on the throne and with the title respectively’.
“But for a position like that of a national coordinator, it is temporal and tenured”, he said.
NCC assured the monarch that the group would be available for the reconciliatory move by the royal father to re-unite all the warring groups that were aggrieved due to the dictatorial style of Gani Adams’.
Speaking on the development, Comrade Adesina Akinpelu said they were overwhelmed by the decision of Ooni over the crisis.
He noted that the order for Adams to step aside was in the interest of the members and which will in no distance time makes the group to reclaim its lost glory.
Akinpelu stated that Adams was not the only national coordinator that the group had produced, saying Dr Fredrick Fasheun served and bowed out.
He further stated that the move by Ooni to merge all factions of the group into one should be welcomed by all Yoruba sons and daughters, warning Gani Adams not to do anything silly to sabotage the new move by the royal father.
Also speaking, Comrade Olayinka Olowoporoku said that what was morally right is for Adams to yield the order of the respected monarch for general interest to prevail.
Olowoporoku added that the group supported the concept of rotating the position to forestall leadership crisis in the future.
According to him, allowing people to stay in positions of authorities for long make them to develop a wanting-to-die-there syndrome.
Other leaders of the group that graced the press briefing included Chief Boye Mayangbe popularly known as Baba Oodua General, Comrade Rotimi Akinsanwon and Comrade Rasaq Aroguntade.