Pastor Tunde Bakare, Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, has decried the adverse effects the fuel subsidy removal amongst others, is having on Nigerians.
The cleric of the Church, formerly known as the Latter Rain Church, on this basis, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to kill corruption and not Nigerians.
Commenting on Sunday, on the harsh economic impact on Nigerians, Bakare said: “Mr President, kill corruption, and not Nigerians. No economy can thrive on impunity.”
Bakare also faulted the proposed military intervention in Niger Republic by the Economic Community of West African States while speaking on the theme ‘Vice, virtue and time: The three things that shall never stand still’ at the church auditorium, located on Kuditat Abiola way, Ikeja, Lagos.
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The former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said: “Local support for Nigeria by Nigeriens is at an all-time low. It is, therefore, counter-productive to engage in a warfare. While we condemn coup d’etat in West Africa, we recognize that the situation calls for deep, introspection on the part of African leaders.
“We call upon Nigeria at this time to provide good leadership. The real question is whether President Tinubu has capacity to provide the moral leadership even in the domestic context.”
Expressing optimism that God will move in Nigeria after his broadcast on the state of the nation, he said: “We must share what the Lord has said to us and what he has shown to us. Today’s state of the nation broadcast is a by product of what we have seen and what we have heard.
“You’re going to see God’s move in our nation after this state of the nation broadcast. Today will mark the time, day and season that God intervened in Nigeria’s affairs.”
According to him, the results of the 2023 elections revealed that Nigerians are tired of the ruling Party.
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The cleric said, “At this juncture, I must also sound a warning to the APC. I was there when the APC was formed and the extent of my involvement is well documented. As a stakeholder and more importantly as a nation builder, I’m more obligated to state without equivocation that this is not the APC we envisaged. The results of the last elections were clear indications that Nigerians are fed up with what the APC had become.”
He furthered that the fact that the votes polled by the APC during the 2023 presidential election declined from what it had in 2015 and 2019, was an indication that there was a loss of support base for the party.
“If it were not for the divisions within the Peoples Democratic Party and the emergence of the Obidient movement of the Labour Party that split the traditional support base of the PDP, the APC would have convincingly lost the 2023 elections. Even now, the party’s victory as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission is being challenged in court,” Bakare added.
In the February 2023 presidential election, INEC declared President Bola Tinubu as the winner after polling a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, who scored 6,984,520 to emerge second. Labour Party’s Obi came third by polling 6,101,533 votes. The outcome of the election is still being challenged by the PDP and the LP at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
According to Bakare, the APC has now become a platform for politicians “with no ideology,” who moved from one party to the other to seek power at all costs.
“The APC stood for progressivism characterised by substantial positive investment in social sectors such as education and healthcare and it achieved inclusiveness and social mobility,” he added, saying this has changed over time given the current economic hardship being faced by many Nigerians which he said were a result of “anti-people policies” of the government.
