By Our Reporter
Fiery preacher, Pastor Tunde Bakare clocked 67 on November 1, 2021. The Serving overseer of the Cital Global Community Church (formerly Latter Rain Assembly) won many fans in Nigeria during the last days of the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in office.
As it became clear that the terminally ill Yar’Adua would not survive, some power-hungry politicians began to play games with the succession arrangement laid down by the constitution, which meant, his vice, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, would succeed him. A cabal around the Yar’Adua presidency were working to keep power in the North by bringing a northern candidate to “complete the tenure of the ailing President if he were to die. These enemies of the Nigeria State, were desperate to set the nation on fire to achieve their selfish ambition.
It was at this critical point Pastor Bakare stepped in with his outfit, Save Nigeria Group, SNG. This group mobilized other civil society groups to mount a strong resistance against the sinister plot of the cabal. The protests gathered momentum and reason eventually prevailed. The National Assembly invoked a Doctrine of necessity and supported the inaugurated of Jonathan when Yar’Adua eventually died.
Clearly, Bakare was a hero of this movement to rescue or save Nigeria. Riding on the crest, he was chosen as Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate during his third run for the presidency. The pastor – activist had moved to full-blown party politics and his neutrality in matters of state changed, as expected.
However, the intrepid pastor-politician’s recent actions and utterances disturbed and confused his followers, because of his inconsistencies. Pastor Bakare had riled against APC national leader, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his running of Lagos State during his 8-year tenure (1999 – 2007). He blamed the ex-governor for most of the developmental challenges of the state, and generally discredited the politician. He continued his tirade against Ashiwaju in a widely publicized statement in December last year.
However, in a swift turn around, Pastor Bakare recently celebrated Tinubu during a riveting sermon in his church. His statement amounted to a virtual endorsement of the politician, whose 2023 presidential ambition is widely known. This provoked a diatribe from Femi Fani-Kayode, FFK. If Bakare’s volte-face on Tinubu embarrassed his followers, his negative comments on the Buhari presidency and unexpected recent visit to Aso Rock certainly put his credibility on the line.
The Pastor had, for long being lamenting what he perceived as the failure of the APC-led federal government, to the extent that, he vowed never to visit President Buhar again! Suddenly, he showed up at the Presidential Villa, for a man who has never hidden his desire to be president, this kind of inconsistencies in public statements and postures is not helpful.
Meanwhile fielding questions from newsmen after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, Abuja, the cleric argued that competence and character should preoccupy Nigerians.
“I’d said it on the 3rd of October. It’s our immaturity, politically and otherwise, that makes us say power must either be in the North or be in the South, instead of looking for the best, the fittest, the most competent, and people of character, who love this nation,” he said.
“If where the president comes from will make the place he has come from to be better, the northern part of Nigeria should be the richest and should be the most progressive and the most developed because out of 61 years, the north has produced either the president or heads of state for 40 to 41 years. And yet, see the retrogression in the North.
“If it’s from the South, why should a person like former President Olusegun Obasanjo freeze and seize the account of Lagos State in his own tenure? If it’s from South-South or Southeast, why couldn’t former President Goodluck Jonathan use all his powers to develop South-South/Southeast?
“Not where they come from, it’s what they carry and what they have to offer. May the best of the best of Nigerians rise, whether they’re from the east, from the west, from the north or from the south.
On restricting, which he supports, he said the template is already there: “It’s in the open, the documents are already there. We can do it without shooting any gun. We need to do it, to move this nation forward. The founding fathers of this nation. Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, alongside their entourage, in Lancaster House and everywhere, agreed on what type of government Nigeria should have. We must not change the goal post in the midst of the game.
“We are better off together as a nation than going our different ways. But it must be based on equity, justice, fair play and the rule of law.”
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