Presiding Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC, formerly Latter Rain Assembly), Pastor Tunde Bakare yesterday decried the state of the nation, saying this was not the Nigeria he and President Muhammadu Buhari dreamt of when they both contested in 2011.
Pastor Bakare who was running mate to Buhari in the 2011 election when he contested under the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressives Congress (CPC) declared that the legacy of Buhari is in grave danger.
During his state of the nation address titled, “The conspicuous handwriting on the wall” delivered at the church auditorium in Lagos on Sunday, Bakare lamented the insecurity in the land, blaming it on the failure of government to create effective regional governance while there is an attempt by regional non-state actors to fill that regional vacuum.
- Reno storms London, invite others to chase Buhari back to Nigeria (+VIDEO)
- Nigerian Stock Exchange suffers N67bn loss
“Our nation is unstable across the geopolitical zones because, in the absence of legitimate regional governance structures, we are confronted with illegitimate regional actors seeking to hijack governance and control the political economy of the regions,” he said.
While he said he remained committed to the success of President Buhari, he was “compelled to speak out because the state of the nation does not represent the Buhari I knew when we took that solemn journey towards rebuilding Nigeria.”
“I am compelled to speak out because this is not the Nigeria General Muhammadu Buhari and I had dreams to create when he invited me to be his running mate in 2011.
“I am compelled to cry out because of the intent of the president as contained in his tribute dated October 14, 2019 in honour of my 65th birthday. He wrote: “We have shared ideas on how to engender a better country and formed a tag team for political power. May the ideas germinate fully, proliferate and give us the country of our dreams.”
“I am compelled to speak out at this point because, given the state of the nation, the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari is in grave danger of being confined to an unsavoury side of history. I am indeed compelled to speak out because Nigeria is in a state of emergency,” he added.
He advised the President to immediately set up regional governance structures with a view to empowering the federating units. This, according to him, is “the heart and soul of restructuring.”
Bakare reiterated that restructuring “does not mean the dismemberment of the Nigerian state” neither is it “an attack on Nigerian unity.”
“It does not mean disadvantaging any section of the country. It means empowering the North West, the North Central, the North East, the South West, the South South and the South East, so that every part of our country will be safe and prosperous. Show me one person who does not want this for our country, and I will show you an enemy of Nigeria,” he added.
