Tobias Sylvester
Pastor Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says there is “gross failure” in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that a Northerner can still emerge as Nigeria’s president in 2023.
Bakare, who was the running mate to Buhari in the 2011 presidential election, stated this during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday.
According to him, he is terribly shocked by the gross failure in Buhari’s administration because this is not the Nigeria they had envisioned as the running mate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
The cleric said the country is at the precipice and that many things currently happening in the country have not been seen before, adding that Nigeria has a way of bouncing back.
“This is not the Nigeria we envisioned not only as young people but in 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,” he said.
There’s Gross Failure In Buhari Administration
Pastor Bakare said that Nigerians, including himself, were hopeful about the change promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC), but he is “terribly shocked” about the state of the nation.
“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 past 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.
“A six-year-old child that is still crawling has problems. You want to examine or call the doctors to come in or a pediatrician, 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 a serious political medicare. There is no problem that is devoid of solutions,” he said.
Asked if Buhari’s administration is a failure, Bakare said there is “gross failure” in the administration and that it is possible to fail forward in order to resolve the country’s problems.
“I like to use my own words. Failure will look, ‘like try again’, you can still do something with it. I once failed an examination in mathematics. In 1973, I sat for 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 in English… Yes, there is gross failure, it is apparent to everyone but you can fail forward,” he said.
A Northerner Can Still Succeed Buhari In 2023
Bakare said it is not wrong or unconstitutional for a northerner to succeed Buhari in 2023, but the emphasis should be on the competence of the next president and not the zone producing him.
“Let the best of the best emerge… it doesn’t matter which part of the country the person comes from,” the cleric said.
“I have heard all kinds of arguments on rotation and zoning. Some are saying (Olusegun) Obasanjo, plus (Goodluck) Jonathan, that’s 14 years and (Umaru) Yar’Adua plus Buhari is 10 years and that the North still has four more years. At this moment, what is needed is a person who can do it.
“Political parties should bring their best forward. Let the best of the best emerge. It can go to the South, it can go to the North. It is only one seat. If it’s an Igbo man, so be it, if it’s a Yoruba man, so be it. If it is a Northerner, a Hausa or Fulani, so be it. And I am saying that passionately.
“If we had promised rotation, so let’s practice rotation, if it’s not part of our Constitution, let’s face the reality. It is not really where the person comes from that matters, it is what he is able to do and deliver.”
Pastor Bakare added that Nigeria’s next president should be someone who loves the nation and is not going to corner resources for his own people.
This comes a few months after Pastor Bakare has apologized for supporting President Buhari in 2015, saying God had shown him in a vision that PMB still had a role to play in stabilizing Nigeria.
