+His Extravagant Lifestyle
He got into the limelight after breaking away from the original Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) founded by Dr. Frederick Fasehun in 1994 after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election presumably won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
Prior to that time, little or nothing was known about Otunba Gani Adams, who is now known as the National Co-ordinator of the OPC.
The OPC was reportedly formed to promote the cause of the Yorubas in Nigeria and ensure that events leading to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections were not allowed to be repeated and to give the tribe her proper place in the country.
Many people have however, repeatedly said that Gani Adams has derailed from this cause and they have since accused the Arigidi-Akoko, Ondo State born ‘activist’ of using the opportunity of the formation of Gani Adams faction of the OPC early 2000 to enrich himself and live an extravagant lifestyle that has been attracting the attention of members of the public and that has led to the breakaway of several members of the supposed fundamentalist group.
Initially, when Gani started off with his faction, many saw him as a fighter of the Yoruba tribe, who would use the opportunity provided by the group to promote the cause of the Yoruba people, but this has since been jettisoned as it is believed that Gani Adams is using the OPC to enrich himself and his cronies.
Critics have pointed to his magnificent mansion, an imposing white house tucked away in Abule Ado area of Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos State and some other properties in choice areas of the state.
Not only that, they accused Gani of cruising around in choice cars such as a white Sequia, a hummer jeep and other expensive wonders on wheels.
To many observers, Gani Adams is not fighting for the interest of the Yorubas as they insisted that he is busy gallivanting all over the world, organizing events all round the year and romancing the people in the corridors of power for selfish purposes.
Some of the events organized by Gani Adams through Olokun Festival Foundation over which people have accused him of shifting attention from the main issues include; Oodua Festival, Grandmother’s Day, Olumo Festival, Eledumare Festival and Oke-Badan Festival.
Others include Wealth Festival, Ornamiyan Festival, Ifa Festival, Okota Festival, Osun-Osogbo Festival amongst others. These are apart from his annual birthday celebration that is always a week-long activity and which usually holds every last week of April to Ist of May.
This year’s edition, according to sources, held with fanfare and was climaxed on 1st May at an event centre in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, where musicians such as Lanre Teriba (Atorise), Wasiu Alabi Pasuma, Saheed Osupa and Abass Akande (Obesere) entertained the guests. Many had wondered why a so called activist or freedom fighter swim in opulence and lavish money on a week-long birthday party where he pays musicians to come and sing his praises.
Those, who have been opportune to attend the festivals testified to the extravagant display of wealth by Gani Adams, and added that all these are just ways of showing off and shifting attention from the main issues.
“How can Gani Adams say he is fighting for the Yorubas, when the Yorubas are not even supporting him anymore? He is one man the Yorubas are no longer associating with. Look at his controversial pipeline security project from President Goodluck Jonathan. Moreso, he supported Jonathan during the last presidential elections because of money and the people of the South West, which Gani says he is fighting for did not vote for Jonathan, rather they voted for in-coming president Muhammadu Buhari, in fact Gani lost his polling booth to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) he is supporting,” said a source.
Those, who spoke about Gani’s extravagant lifestyle accused him of not giving accounts of the money he is collecting from the branches of his faction of OPC scattered all over Nigeria and abroad, and accused him of founding other organizations such as Oodua Progressive Union (OPU) for self-aggrandizement and personal ambition.
They gave instances of how Gani travels to foreign countries such as London, United States of America, Dubai in the United Arab Emirate, Brazil, South Africa and other parts of the world with his aides, selected journalists and musicians on a regular basis.
“Which war is Gani Adams fighting now, he is just enjoying himself and collecting money from President Jonathan and spending the money without giving accounts. That was why he fought Dr. Frederick Fasehun, who founded OPC and now he is behaving as if he founded OPC. No Yoruba man reckons with Gani anymore, he is not our leader and he cannot issue out any command because he has compromised his stand. He is a rich man now, which work is he even doing, he trained as a carpenter and I can tell you that he doesn’t have any furnishing company. All that he does now is to go round the country, go to Aso Rock to see President Jonathan and collect money from him under false pretences, travel abroad, organize events every month as if that is what fighting for the rights of the people is all about,” said a close source to Gani Adams.
However, another source debunked these allegations as he said that Gani Adams is loved by the people, and that he remains the fighter of the Yorubas.
“Who tells you that Gani does not command the followership of the Yorubas, they love him and they know that he is fighting for their rights. All what he is doing with the festivals are just to promote the Yoruba culture and the birthday celebration is a normal thing for everybody. Those who are accusing him of embezzling money are those that have offended the group and were driven away for their shortcomings by the OPC council. So, I can tell you that Gani is a man of the people and we all love him,” said an aide of Gani Adams, who preferred not to be named.
