Lead Pastor of Dominion Hall Citadel Global, Tunde Bakare, has asked those scheming against the National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to stop doing so.
The pastor, whose church was formerly called the Latter Rain Assembly believes such people are demonising and scheming against Tinubu because of his past. Like Tinubu, Bakare is known to be interested in the future leadership of Nigeria.
In a recent sermon monitored by POLITICS NIGERIA, he tackled issues that many exploit to criticise Tinubu, including the claim that he eats billions from taxation in Lagos. According to Bakare, the APC could not have won the 2015 and 2019 election without Tinubu.
He added that no other person had achieved for the South-West what Tinubu had, especially what he did between 1999 and 2007. He told those he called Tinubu’s traducers to eat their humble pie and work with him.
Making references to some instances in the Bible, the pastor also noted that fighting Tinubu because of his alleged Iragbiji ancestry was mundane. In a video bearing the sermon, Bakare said: “Accept your humble pie. Eat it. When you were sleeping, Asiwaju was working day and night. He secured Lagos. He secured Ogun. He secured Osun. He secured Ondo. He secured Edo, and you say he is nobody. You are ode (a fool). You think he laboured that much to say, ‘Çome and take.’ No, he is not a fool.”
“Stop all this nonsense about ancestry. You will kill your heroes and those who can deliver you and nothing will happen. All of these sakabula leaders, they don’t have machine guns. By sakabula, I mean dane guns. I am not a friend of anybody. Ojo o b’enikan sota, eni eji ri leji pa. (I am like the rain that has no enemy, thus drenching whoever it encounters.)”.
Bakare noted that some Yoruba elders were plotting some alternative political re-engineering which, he argued, would not work without Tinubu. According to him, the former Governor of Lagos State’s structure will swallow such because he had worked ahead.
Bakare added, “Stop plotting, scheming against someone. He has his past, you have yours. Even Pope has a past. Don’t let me expose your men of God o, because they all have a past. And before I expose them I should look inward too, because I have my past and you too do. If you have no past, you have no future.”
“I will defend the right of even my enemy when they have that right. Has he done something with power? Yes. Has he done all things right? No, but he did his best. You can’t give more than what you have. Therefore, let’s sit around the table and say: These are the challenges. Do you know how long ago I told the Yoruba elders to do this? Over 10 years ago. They are now going around. Milling around him. We are going to fix this country, and nobody has the monopoly of wisdom to do it.”
“I know what I am saying. Today we create a lot of backlash on social media. Call me names. I know my names. Say what you like about me, but let’s fix it.”
According to Bakare, there were many who even did evils as recorded by the Bible, whom God used because they turned around. He gave their examples, including David.
“He said, ‘Oh, you don’t know what Asiwaju has done? Oh, he is making money from taxation. Why don’t you make yours? If the system allows it, and he exploited that system to his own advantage.”
Tinubu is one of the most influential and controversial politicians in the current era. Although he emerged from the private sector, he moved relatively fast on the political ladder, arguably helped by the prominent role he played during the June 12 struggles.
