The Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church, (formerly called The Latter Rain Assembly), Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Sunday, dared an official of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to come after him if the government was offended by his recent pronouncements, which he said had become unsettling to some people.
Bakare, who said this during his sermon at the CGCC, equally faulted the recent clampdown on the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, contending that the Federal Government had jettisoned the search for justice and replaced same with intimidation and brutality.
The cleric was the running mate to Buhari when the President contested the presidential election on the platform of the now defunct Congress for Progressive Change in 2011 and lost.
Bakare stated, “I dare you to come after me since that is the usual style now. You might have done it to others; you are about to learn a lesson if you touch me,” said the cleric, who did not name the government official.
“If you know what I have done in secret, bring it to the open. I dare you to come after me if you can. I worked with you; I worked for you; I supported you to get there (where you are). When I talk now, I now have a smelly mouth.
“I’m not interested in meeting you any longer; no more visits. Now, it is war, because Nigeria must be set free.”
Bakare went down memory lane to reel out how he supported the top official to get to his current position.
He wondered if the official had forgotten what transpired between them when only himself and the official were alone in a room after the official had vowed never to contest the post he had contested and lost out on three occasions.
The cleric added, “Have you forgotten that you vowed never to contest again. I said ‘not so’. I showed you how you can win the next election and you agreed to run and you won. I was not considering myself but concerned about how Nigeria can become great.
“Winning an election is a different thing; doing the right thing is another. No one must behave as if Nigeria is a personal property. Nigeria must be set free and any obstruction along the way must be removed; it must get out of the way.
“I declare to you ‘Nigeria-for-Nigeria Movement’. I’m prepared to lead this movement. Nigeria is not a one man property. This movement will liberate Nigeria.”
Bakare recalled how he declared in the heydays of the late maximum ruler, Gen Sani Abacha, that his (Abacha) days were numbered, saying Nigerians should be prepared for a change of baton.
The cleric equally berated the government for expending so much energy on clamping down on sectional agitators in the country, explaining, however, that he did not support any one or groups taking up arms against the state.
“I don’t support any act of violence, taking up arms against the country and killing people. Those are in the realm of criminality and anybody doing that must be brought to book,” Bakare said amid prayers and declarations.
He added, “However, we must realise that what has given rise to the agitation is lack of justice and equity. When there is justice, when there is equity, agitation will die down.
“How can you be expending so much energy on Igboho and Kanu? Igboho and Kanu are not Nigeria’s problems.
“Nigeria must restructure and no one can stop that.”