New Telegraph

Bakare meets Buhari, calls for unity based on equity, justice

…says those calling for power shift politically immature

Pastor Tunde Bakare, head of Citadel Global Community Church, yesterday met with President Muhammadu Buhari in the Presidential Villa. The cleric, who told State House Correspondents that his visit to the President was private, disclosed that he used the meeting to express what was on his mind, calling for unity based on equity and justice, while adding that those seeking for power shift are politically immature. Bakare, who once ran as a running mate to Buhari for the Presidency on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 Presidential election, has since become one of the virulent critics of the President in recent times.

The cleric has recently called for a change of guards at the Presidency in order to bring in competent people to handle critical affairs in the country. Bakare, who commended the National Assembly for approving electronic transmission of elections results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), urged the lawmakers to go further by approving electronic and diaspora voting. According to him, 22.3 million students are registered, but during election, campuses are shut, they will not be able to return there to vote, therefore disenfranchised. If we can do not just transmitting results, but to be able to vote electronically, that will be wonderful. It will deepen and enhance our democracy.

He argued that Nigeria in Diaspora should also be able to vote like they do in every other country in the world. “The more the merrier. Yes, democracy is a game of number, but our people should have the final say, so the office of the citizen must be as important, if not more than the office of the governor or the president because they are the people who put them in power. Sovereignty still lies in the hands of the people of Nigeria.” Asked how he would want Nigeria to be restructured, Bakare said such had already been exhaustively discussed and that a return to the template negotiated by the founding fathers of the country, including Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, alongside with their entourage, in Lancaster House and everywhere where they agreed on what type of government the country should have was desirable. Commenting on the raging debate of power rotation, Bakare said such argument was as a result of people’s political immaturity. He argued that the best candidate should be made to lead the country regardless of the zone he hailed from, adding however that if there was an initial agreement of rotation among parties, such must be adhered to.

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