Presiding Overseer of the Global Community Citadel Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Sunday, lamented the challenges facing Nigeria, warning that the country is descending into tyranny under President Bola Tinubu.
Bakare, in his state of the nation broadcast, condemned the spate of recent attacks in Edo, Benue, Plateau, Zamfara, Borno and other states.
According to him, communities are now forming “poorly trained, poorly equipped and unprofessional militias, with some taking the law into their own hands” due to the loss of faith in the capacity of the government to guarantee their security.
Recall that Bakare was among the aspirants of the All Progressives Congress, who lost the party’s presidential primaries to Tinubu in 2022.
The cleric was also the running mate to Muhammadu Buhari during the 2011 presidential election.
On Sunday, Bakare described the security situation in the country as a dangerous trajectory, calling for a holistic reform of the national security architecture.
He said the national security problems point to fundamental structural defect designed by the constitution.
Bakare stated that the country must rethink the security philosophy to one that protects Nigerians from one that protects government officials.
He reiterated that Nigeria must reinstate national security federalism by activating constitutional procedures for multilevel policing, including local, state and zonal policing systems.
He added, “Against this backdrop, we must redesign our security architecture by facilitating the formation of zonal security councils chaired by a governor from the respective zone on a rotating basis. Such zonal security councils, which will be formed by state and local policing systems within respective zones, must be managed by nonpartisan security experts while the chairperson at each point in time will represent the zone at the National Security Council.
“We must also recreate our national security culture by mandating the kind of organisational culture change within the entire gamut of our law enforcement agencies that can win back the trust of the people.
“Finally, these security reforms must also be backed by intense international engagement through a two-tier foreign policy thrust (the Trans-Saharan and the Trans-Atlantic) to boost our capabilities, and to combat terrorism, banditry, and other forms of insurgency,” he said.
The cleric in his address, also carpeted President Tinubu over what he described as seeming attempts at state capture.
He described the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State as a theater of the absurd endorsed by a National Assembly, which he described as the most “spineless” in Nigeria’s recent history.
Bakare also lambasted the National Assembly over the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, challenging the suspension of the Senator for demanding accountability and transparency from the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Pastor Bakare expressed dismay over the verbal attacks in the Senate involving Ebonyi Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi and former Education Minister, Dr. Obi Ezekwesili during the hearing on the suspension of Senator Natasha, saying the Senate has become an institution for political rascality.
With the statement of Senator Nwebonyi that Ezekwesili can’t be in the Senate, it means the institution is not the place for the brightest and the fittest and that the nation’s political institutions are “not designed for people of character and competence.”
According to him, it is through the influence of the President that the National Assembly has become a “haven for legislative rascality,” rubber stamping every thing the President sent to them.
Bakare said to the president: “Thanks to your political machination, this National Assembly has become the most ineffective.”
According to him, despite his earlier admonition to the president, recent events have shown that “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.
“From the theatre of the absurd staged in Rivers State, with puppets on strings controlled by directors in Abuja, to the dance of shame performed by the National Assembly in their rush to suspend the constitution and endorse, through the backdoor, the usurpation of powers by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; from the Senate’s shameless bid to silence Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for demanding that the President of the Nigerian Senate uphold the moral standards required of that office, to the uncouth outbursts of an undistinguished senatorial misfit who tried in vain to silence the distinguished citizens attempting to testify on behalf of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, it is clear that our so-called leaders are determined to turn Nigeria into a mafia state.
“The two main contenders in the ongoing institutional immorality Olympics are the executive and the legislature. It is often said that these two arms of government suffered the worst forms of arrested development because they were the direct victims of the military era, but after twenty-six years of uninterrupted democracy, one must ask: how much longer before our institutions finally mature?
“While it is not in dispute that our institutions and constitution are inadequate, it has become obvious that our biggest problems are the occupiers of these institutions and executors of the constitution.
“The quality of leadership in Nigeria has become so repugnant that citizens must declare a state of emergency on governance, demanding that every aspiring public officeholder undergo rigorous psychiatric evaluation before seeking election.”
