BY SEYIFUNMI LUMEKO
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, CGCC, has expressed shock over what he described yesterday as a ‘gross failure’ in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former vice-presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, said the country is at the precipice and that many things currently happening had not been seen before, adding that Nigeria has a way of bouncing back.
His words: “This is not the Nigeria we envisioned not only as young people but in the recent past. It is as if we are again at the precipice but Nigeria has a way of bouncing back; we are full of hope that God Almighty will help us. We are in a very perplexing situation as a nation. Many things that we didn’t see before are happening now. Even the president himself said so that nothing worries or bothers him like what is happening in the north-east, especially the banditry and kidnapping.”
Asked if he is surprised by the state of the nation considering the role he played in the emergence of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to power, Bakare said he is “terribly shocked”, adding that Nigerians, including himself, were hopeful about the change promised by the APC.
“Surprise will be a good thing for me. I’m not surprised. I’m terribly shocked about the things that are happening. I never envisaged them,” he said.
Asked to assess Buhari’s administration in the last six years, the cleric made an analogy of a six-year-old child who is still crawling, noting that the country needs “political medicare” to resolve its myriad of problems.
He said: “A six-year-old child that is still crawling has problems. You want to examine or call the doctors to come in or a paediatrician, you say that this child was given birth to six years ago but it is crawling, just moving on its buttocks, not running, not walking, something is wrong. If we are going to assess, we need serious political medicare. There is no problem that is devoid of solutions.”
Asked if Buhari’s administration is a failure, Bakare said there is “gross failure” in the administration and that it is possible to fall forward to resolve the country’s problems.
“I like to use my own words. Failure will look like, ‘like try again’, you can still do something with it. I once failed an examination in mathematics. In 1973, I sat for an exam and I got what we called inverted six, which is nine in mathematics but I met a friend of mine, who is late now, Ahmed Abebefe, who was a genius in mathematics in secondary school but his English was terrible. I was very good at English… Yes, there is a gross failure, it is apparent to everyone but you can fail forward.”
Asked if he still trusts President Buhari, Bakare said: “The bible says we should not trust anybody because the arm of flesh will fail. The only person you can trust is God almighty. If I were in his shoes, I will try other things if all he had tried do not work. We have been going around this mountain for eight years. Something needs to be done if he’s mindful of his legacy. That has been my cry that all. If there’s going to be an outstanding, enduring legacy, something needs to be done, something that cannot be easily erased or rubbished. Something needs to be done very soon.”
Asked if he would be running for president in 2023, he said: “I am a free citizen, I can run for anything. When that time comes, the whole world would know. There’s nothing that says you cannot run. And I respect other people’s right also to rise and run.
“Right now, that is not my immediate focus because if there is no nation to preside over, what are you running except you want to run out of the country. But guess what: Either as President Tunde Bakare or Pastor Tunde Bakare, the initials will remain the same PTB.”
