 |
Mr. Tunde Bakare is a Pastor, so he should be in a position to appreciate the rather curious words of St. Francis of Assisi: “Pray that not all your prayers are answered”. His fervent prayer that Gen. Mohammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s President was answered after Buhari’s several attempts. Yet, his complaints against Buhari’s track records have been about the most trenchant lately.
Then, within the week, Bakare dropped a bombshell; he was exposing what inspired Buhari to break his words that he would not seek to be President after the failure of his 2011 attempt. Bakare provided the inspiration. And instead of asking himself if the fault actually came from him, that is if he misinterpreted God’s message to him, he appears to have embarked on the second leg of that message, to run for the office of President and possibly be one.
If an unexamined life is not worth living, to pursue a misunderstood dream could be pretty dangerous.
Dream! Dream!! Dream!!! When it pertains to President Mohammadu Buhari, lightning (yes, the dream lightning) has struck the same place twice. Two times, he has emerged Nigeria’s ruler, first as a military Head of State in January 1984 and second, as a democratically elected President in 2015 – owing to nothing but dreams. He is now serving his second term of four years, powered by the ordinary dreams (not as in ideas, profound thoughts, imaginings or remarkable plans) other persons had when they were sleeping peacefully on their beds.
This most unusual story about this most unusual trajectory to the presidency was reignited by a most unusual man; Pastor Tunde Bakare Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly now renamed Citadel Global Community Church, which in 2019 commissioned its N18 billion single church building.
It was in the morning of Tuesday 24th August 2021 when the Channels Television station interrupted its morning sports programme to accommodate the lawyer-turned Pastor, who is also the one-time Buhari supporter who recently turned his most trenchant critic. The Pastor had actually said all he planned to say and had arrived at that tail end of the interview when a gifted journalist would be attempting to squeeze water out of a stone by striving to get the interviewee say much more than he ever planned to divulge as the discussion was winding down, when the most informative detail from that interview dropped, casually, most casually, from the Pastor’s lips.
How could it be explained that he, a former confidant of President Buhari, has turned a critic? He replied: Yes, there is gross failure, it is apparent to everyone, but you can fail forward… I said I have served, I had respected, loved but I will not keep quiet and then things fall apart. You do not sacrifice truth on the altar of friendship. Any friendship that ends, never started. So, do not think that there is a crisis, that we are not talking or that we are not seeing each other, no, no, no, it is not like that. But I had to cry out in case he is not aware of all these things that are happening around him”.
When reminded that from the way he spoke it appeared that he had parted ways with Buhari or at least their friendship was shredding, Bakare said they were still great friends. The Channels Reporter reminded him that he said he was not afraid to speak out, as though he was aware that any who spoke against the Presidency was moved against, he let out perhaps the most excoriating criticism of despotism against any Nigerian administration, ever. Bakare said: “Let me tell you what led to that statement. It was horrifying to me to live in a country, where security men will invade the home of a private citizen who has not been charged for any crime and they will kill people, and drag the blood of those people on the floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment