The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church in Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has slammed people who criticised a sermon in which he commended a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for his contributions to the country.
Bakare, while describing his critics as ‘undertakers,’ urged those with proof that he was bribed to speak out.
He insisted that nobody was rich enough to pay him for his works.
The fiery preacher had last Sunday compared Tinubu to Jephtah in the Bible, saying he fought many battles for the Yoruba and “delivered Lagos State and nearly all the South-West states from the onslaught of the PDP from 1999 to 2007.”
Mixed reactions trailed the message, as many wondered why Bakare, who once spoke against Tinubu turned around to praise him.
The preacher, while speaking to his congregation on Sunday at the church’s headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos, in another message, titled, ‘There is None Holy as the Lord,’ wondered why people judged him based on the clip on Tinubu that went viral without listening to the full sermon.
He said, “One would have thought that the whole message of over an hour would be listened to so that the context of the clip that went viral would be listened to before judgment is passed by those who considered us to have taken a 360-turnaround compared to the thoughts we had taken previously about the man many love to hate and many hate to love.
“Instead, the bath water and the baby were both thrown out by some self-appointed undertakers who think the way forward in our dilemma as a nation is to uproot the tares and separate them from the wheat long before the harvest time ordained by God.
“The same undertakers wilfully forget that the current mixture of the bad, the good, and the ugly in the polity are a result of the negligence of our past and present leaders, who slept on duty and allowed the enemy to sow the tares while the good man had planted good seeds on the ground.”
He insisted that judgment was in the hands of God, and people should not be in a hurry to judge anyone because of their past actions.
Bakare said his commendation of Tinubu’s political success was not an approval of his lifestyle.
The pastor insisted that while many people were sleeping, the former governor was “working hard and positioning his people in strategic places.”
He noted that it would be hard for anyone to win an election against Tinubu’s candidate in Lagos because “it’s not yet time.”
Bakare explained that his comments on Tinubu were not influenced by any ‘power broker’ from Abuja.
He said, “As a matter of fact, this past week, this set of individuals went to the extreme of calling me delusional, while others concluded that money must have changed hands for me to say the things that were said contrary to my previous stand concerning the same person.
“You think somebody will pay me for what I am doing? No one is rich enough to do it. No one in this country or elsewhere is rich enough. And I am not for sale because I have been bought. I was bought by the Blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary and no other price can match that. And if you know of anyone who has given me money at any time to do what I am doing, expose it.
“One gentleman in particular labelled the part of the message he heard without listening to the rest. With all the PhDs he acquired, he said, ‘Tunde Bakare strategical delegitimisation of Tinubu.’
“Brothers and sisters, I say this before God who will judge the quick and the dead, none of these things is true. They are all the figments of the imagination of the writers and they are entitled to their opinions.”