‘Stop playing God,’ Pastor Bakare tells Tinubu in Easter message

The founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare has delivered a scathing critique of Nigeria’s leadership during his Easter Sunday state-of-the-nation broadcast in Lagos.

The former presidential candidate accused President Tinubu of nurturing a “motor park brand of politics” that has led to legislative rascality and the erosion of constitutional governance.

The pastor called for a change in leadership approach, warning that Nigeria is too delicate for the current brand of politics.

He urged President Tinubu to reflect on the dangers of unlimited power and to stop “playing God.”

Mr Bakare was a former Vice-Presidential candidate to Muhammadu Buhari during the 2011 elections under the Congress for Progressive Change.

In 2022, the fiery preacher obtained the N100 million presidential Expression of Interest and Nomination forms of the ruling All Progressives Congress. He however got zero votes at the party’s presidential primaries.

President Bola Tinubu beat all the other aspirants to the ticket, polling 1,217 delegate votes.

Mr Bakare specifically referenced the Senate’s handling of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

He described the behavioir of Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi towards Oby Ezekwesili as “street-level vitriol.”

On 25 March, a heated exchange occurred between Mr Nwebonyi and Mrs Ezekwesili during a Senate Ethics Committee hearing to investigate the sexual harassment allegations involving Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Akpabio.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that the altercation began after Mr Nwebonyi urged the committee to allow him make his own submission if Mrs Ezekwesili-led team was not ready to proceed.

Mrs Ezekwesili then jumped in, telling the senator, “can you shut up?’ In response, an enraged Mr Nwaebonyi attacked the former minister.

He said she would “never be a senator” and called her “an insult to womanhood.”

“Why should you talk to a senator like that? You can never be a senator. You are an insult to womanhood,” Mr Nwebonyi said.

The Senate ultimately threw out Natasha’s sexual harassment petition.

“Those responsible for steering the course of our nation lack the humility and character this moment demands of leaders. Instead, what we have seen since the beginning of the year is a descent into tyranny and the brazen abuse of power.

“Those entrusted with power appear determined to destabilise what is left of our political institutions and have committed themselves to obliterating the guardrails of constitutional governance,” he said.

Economic reforms

Mr Bakare further highlighted the country’s dire economic situation under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

According to Mr Bakare, the government’s economic reforms have triggered unprecedented hardships, including excruciating food inflation, fuel price hikes of over 430%, and the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

Citing data from the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mr Bakare noted that Nigeria now boasts one of the world’s highest misery indexes, with tens of millions pushed deeper into poverty.

Mr Bakare emphasised the need for empathy, methodology, transparency, and responsibility in driving reforms.

While acknowledging some successes, including a $5 billion increase in reserves, Bakare urged the administration to reimagine Nigeria’s economic path and end the suffering of its people.

“The stampede deaths in several cities at the end of 2024 were the most horrific climax to the economic hardships experienced by Nigerians.

“The heartbreaking reports of parents throwing their children over a fence in Ibadan to ensure access to charity food distribution, leading to the deaths of over thirty-five children, were tragically almost reminiscent of the biblical famine in Samaria during which parents resorted to eating their children for survival,” he said.

Mr Bakare has been a vocal critic of bad governance, abuse of powers and anti-people policies.

His defunct pressure group, the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), played a key role in the 2012 nationwide Occupy Ngeria protest against fuel subsidy removal by the then-President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Before then, the group gained prominence during the campaign for the handing over of power to then-Vice President Jonathan during the protracted ailment of President Umar Yar’adua, who later died in 2010.

Although many critics have observed that Mr Bakari was unduly silent about many things that went wrong during Mr Buhari’s administration because of his relationship with the former president.

There is no love lost between Mr Bakare and Mr Tinubu. His criticism of Mr Tinubu harks back to the president’s days as the governor of Lagos State.

On the eve of Mr Tinubu’s inauguration, Mr Bakare said he would never call then-president-elect, his president due to alleged series of malpractices during the 2023 election.