TheNewsGuru

Tag: Bakare

  • I have something to offer Nigeria- Bakare

    I have something to offer Nigeria- Bakare

    Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church(Formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly) Pastor Tunde Bakare, says his ambition to become the President of Nigeria is a lifelong dream and he has something to contribute to the development of Nigeria. Bakare said that he has had that dream as a boy.

    The revered cleric spoke on Tuesday night in an Instagram Live Chat with popular journalist, Dele Momodu, monitored by TheNewsGuru.

    TheNewsGuru recalls that Bakare was the running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential election. Buhari later contested again and won in 2015 with Yemi Osinbajo under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress.

    The cleric said he has not given up on his presidential ambition but averred that his was not an inordinate ambition.

    He said, “In an ideal situation, every Nigerian is entitled to his or her dream and we must find a way of liberating that office that any Nigerian who desires to be in the office or to be the president of Nigeria should be at liberty to do so.

    “I express my own desire but it is not any inordinate ambition and it is not that I must kill and maim in order to get there. I have something to offer my country, God giving me the opportunity and the people saying so, I desire to still contribute my meaningful quota to the development of my nation. It is a dream I have had as a little boy and it has never left me but I am not pushing neither am I forcing myself on people.

    “Remember something about the presidency in Nigeria, those who pursue it too hard hardly get it, those who put everything into it hardly get it and those who are qualified like MKO, he won the election, they didn’t let him get it. Chief Obafemi Awolowo has been described as the best president Nigeria never had.

     

    “I will tell you it was the time Muhammadu Buhari stood publicly and said I will no longer offer myself for public service; it was after that that he got it. So, there is no inordinate ambition here that it must happen at all cost. If God gives me the opportunity, I will serve my nation but may the best candidate win in the net election and may God bring the best and brightest candidate emerge and steer the ship of our nation.”

     

  • 2023 presidency: Afenifere reveals stand on Tinubu, Fayemi, Bakare’s ambition

    2023 presidency: Afenifere reveals stand on Tinubu, Fayemi, Bakare’s ambition

    The pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere on Wednesday bared its mind on the 2023 presidential ambition of the National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Governor Kayode Fayemi and Pastor Tunde Bakare.

    National Publicity Secretary, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said the group was aware that Tinubu, Fayemi and Bakare were scheming to be president in 2023, but that none of them had received the endorsement of Afenifere yet.

    Odumakin spoke at the Punch Online interview programme, ‘The Roundtable.’

    He said there is no doubt that Tinubu is a leader in Yorubaland but that he is not the leader of the Yoruba people.

    Odumakin said to say that Tinubu had done more for the Yoruba people is debatable, saying that no one would earn Afenifere’s support simply because he is a Yoruba man.

    He said the group would examine what such people stood for before deciding its choice.

    Right now, Odumakin said Afenifere was not supporting any one at the moment, but only watching those who were interested in the 2023 presidency, including Fayemi, Tinubu, and Bakare and other non-Yoruba people.

    He stated that where each aspirant stood for on the issue of restructuring and federalism would determine who got its support, stressing that the group was not afraid to state its support for any candidate and any party.

  • 2023 Prophetic Warfare: Primate Ayodele fights Pastor Bakare over Tinubu’s presidential ambition

    2023 Prophetic Warfare: Primate Ayodele fights Pastor Bakare over Tinubu’s presidential ambition

    In what could be described as prophetic warfare ahead 2023 Presidential poll, the leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has fired a salvo at the serving Overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare describing him as a comedian who is trying to delve into the arena of prophecy he knows little or nothing about.

    Reacting to a comment credited to Bakare on Thursday, Primate Ayodele advised him to stay to his calling and to his lane in spiritual matters. .

    The Primate was peeved by the comment credited to Bakare on the presidential ambition of former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Bola Tinubu that he does not need the validation of anyone to become president.

    Ayodele who described Bakare as a bundle of contradiction wondered how he, Bakare, will fulfill his own presidential ambition which he shouted to high heavens recently; adding that nothing can change now that he has become a brand manager to Tinubu.

    He said, “ Bakare is a comedian. How will he fulfill his own number 16 presidential ambition that he shouted to high heaven recently that nothing can change now that he has become a brand manager to Tinubu.He’s a pastor and should not delve into prophecy because there’s difference between a pastor and a prophet.”

  • 2023: Pastor Bakare blasts Tinubu’s critics, says victory of APC in 2015, 2019 impossible without Jagaban’s dexterity

    2023: Pastor Bakare blasts Tinubu’s critics, says victory of APC in 2015, 2019 impossible without Jagaban’s dexterity

    The serving overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, used his political dexterity to win elections for the party in 2015 and 2019.

    Bakare stated this while speaking at the church’s recently unveiled Citadel in Lagos.

    According to him, God does not need anyone’s permission to put Tinubu in His hall of fame.

    The fiery cleric likened Tinubu to Jephthah in the Bible, who delivered his people despite the circumstances of his birth.

    “I have a word for some Yoruba people whose stock in trade is nothing but a rancorous noise characterised by bitterness and resentment about the ancestry of the former two-term governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Bakare said.

    “Carry your stone. I have a word for those Yoruba rancorous elements, noisemakers who have not achieved much as Asiwaju Tinubu has achieved, but are always querying and worrying themselves about his ancestry.

    “His traducers are quick to tell you, he’s from Iragbiji; that is where Jephthah came from, that is where he came from. As if that will resolve the issues we have today. Hear me loud and clear, knowing the name of Asiwaju’s mother or father or his place of birth cannot put food on the table of the hungry or create jobs for the unemployed.

    “Despite his growing up challenges, the dents and the detours of his life, he like Jephthah delivered Lagos state and nearly all the southwest states from the onslaught of the PDP from 1999 to 2007.

    “Truth be told, without his cooperation and political dexterity, the APC victory at the polls in 2015 and 2019 would have been impossible.”

    Bakare said he is not Tinubu’s brand manager, but all he knows is that “just as every saint has a past, every sinner has a future, and the best of men are still men at the very best.”

    “Those who are envious of him and those who desire to take his power slot should stop their useless talk about him, and busy themselves with what can add value to society.

    “Like Jephthah the Gileadite, he has fought many battles on behalf of the Yoruba people and won despite his rough beginning and God does not need anybody’s permission to put such in his hall of fame despite their past deeds and ancestry”.

    Bakare, who said he reasons straight from scripture, said strange bedfellows coming together for a Yoruba front have a hidden agenda.

    “When Pilate and Herod agreed, it was because he wanted to kill Jesus.”

    Watch video:

  • Pst. Adeboye made me accept to be Buhari’s running mate in 2011 – Pastor Bakare

    Pst. Adeboye made me accept to be Buhari’s running mate in 2011 – Pastor Bakare

    The senior pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, has recalled how a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili turned down the request to be President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in 2011.

    Pastor Bakare, who was telling the story of how he met and became Buhari’s running mate in 2011, said he listened to the advice of Pastor Enoch Adeboye before accepting to run with Buhari.

    Bakare said that President Buhari had called him, requesting that he (Bakare) got him a running mate from the South because Nigeria’s structure makes it difficult for one to win the presidential election without a handshake between the north and the south..

    The cleric said the current vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Oby Ezekwesili, Jimi Agbaje, current Minister of Trade and Industry, Niyi Adebayo, were among those he contacted to run with Buhari then.

    He said that while Agbaje was dropped along the line, Ezekwesili, who Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, helped him (Bakare) contact, refused to run with Buhari.

    “But Pastor Adeboye told me he (Buhari) would need a strong Christian to be his running mate. I said to him that Oby is strong too; he said no, that she must not leave certainty for uncertainty because she was working at the World Bank then,” Pastor Bakare said as quoted by the Sun.

    He said that Buhari insisted that he wanted the greatest grassroots mobiliser in the south-west as running mate and “On January 15, 2011, at 12 noon, my phone rang, it was Buhari. He said, Pastor, I had prayed the way I know how to pray, and I want you to pray also, I want you to be my running mate.

    “I said to him…that I will never seek an elective office or join a political party. He said I should pray about it and call him back in seven hours, I didn’t call him.

    “I called Pastor Adeboye and informed him, he said that was it and that he already said Buhari needs a strong Christian and that I am the man and I must go there.

    “I consulted across the board and I signed on at the last day to become his running mate. Of course, we didn’t win the election.”

  • 2023: Bakare renews pledge to takeover from Buhari

    2023: Bakare renews pledge to takeover from Buhari

    Pastor Tunde Bakare, founder, The Citadel Global Community Church, on Monday said there is no going back on his plan to vie for the 2023 presidency.

    Bakare had said in September 2019 that he would be crowned the next president of Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “Take it to the mountain top if you have never heard it before. I am saying it to you this morning, in the scheme of things, as far as politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Buhari is number 15 and yours sincerely is number 16. I never said that to you before, I want to let you know it this morning; nothing can change it, in the name of Jesus. He (Buhari) is number 15; I am number 16,” Pastor Bakare said while placing his right hand on his chest.

    “To this end was I born and for this purpose came I into the world. I have prepared for this for 30 years. When he (Buhari) chose to run in 2019, he is still number 15, when he steps out, I step in,” he had said last year.

    However, in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, Bakare was asked by one of the hosts, Dr. Reuben Abati whether he still stand by what he said last year.

    He said he would offer himself for service and that the choice is left for Nigerians to accept him or not.

    Bakare did not sound so confident like he did last year when he said he would be the 16 president of Nigeria.

    “Every Nigerian citizen who has aspiration to add value to this country is at liberty so to do. It is my fundamental right to run if I choose to and it is my mental right to desist from running, but let me tell you this, I mean every word that I spoke, I cannot just fold my hand and say let it continue.

    “I am a citizen of his county and I intend to contribute my quota, but let me say this to you, it is not a matter of life and death. If we have right people in power, I will support them and if I offer myself and people support me, so be it,” he said.

    According to Bakare, “I am not taking that word back, I have something to offer my country, but it is all left for my country to say we want you; I cannot impose myself on them.

    “And I challenge every right thinking patriot to rise up and let us join hands to fix our nation and if God so designed it that I be the 16th president, well Reuben Abati, I will consult you also as one who has something to offer in terms of media and in terms of spokemanship that you have done before so that we can have accurate speech for accurate moment.”

  • Court rejects Sowore, Bakare’s appeal against bail conditions

    Court rejects Sowore, Bakare’s appeal against bail conditions

    The Court of Appeal in Abuja has struck out the appeal jointly filed by politicians and promoter of an online publication, Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore and his associate, Olawale Bakare.

    In a ruling on Wednesday, a three-man panel of the court upheld the preliminary objection filed against the appeal by Aminu Alilu of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

    In the led ruling by Justice Stephen Adah, the court held that the notice of appeal jointly filed by Sowore and Bakare was incompetent, because in criminal cases, appeals are personal, and each defendant is required to file individual notice of appeal.

    The court also faulted the notice of appeal on the grounds that only one of the appellants signed it, even when they claimed it was a joint notice of appeal.

    Sowore and Bakare are being tried before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges of treasonable felony, fraud, cyberstalking and insulting President Muhammadu Buhari.

    On October 4, 2019 Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu granted both defendants conditional bail, part of which conditions included barring them from addressing public gatherings.

    Sowore was also restricted to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), while Bakare was restricted to his base in Osun State.

    Sowore and Bakare, who described the bail conditions as stringent, had, by their appeal, sought to have them voided.

  • Criminal elements among SARS must be expelled, prosecuted – Pastor Bakare

    Criminal elements among SARS must be expelled, prosecuted – Pastor Bakare

    Pastor Tunde Bakare in Lagos on Sunday called on the Nigeria Police to expel and prosecute criminal elements among the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
    Pastor Bakare made the call during the Sunday Service at the Citadel Church formerly the Latter Rain Assembly at Oregun, Lagos.
    Bakare, who commended the disbandment of SARS, said he was confident that this generation would succeed his own failed generation.
    “It is with a heavy heart I have followed the #EndSARS protests, as young and older Nigerians are united in rejecting harassment, humiliation and the coldblooded murder of their fellow citizens.
    “I recognise this movement for what it is: a wholesale rejection of the barrage of needless frustrations and degradations that define the Nigerian experience.
    “You simply cannot police a people without their cooperation, and you cannot obtain the cooperation of the people for a tactical unit they no longer trust.
    “We must find a balance between retaining the anti-robbery intention and re-evaluating the identity of the vehicle by first expelling and prosecuting the criminal elements among the rank and file and the leadership,” he said.
    Bakare added that the country must re-evaluate, restructure, rebrand and rebuild confidence in an efficient and effective anti-robbery tactical unit.
    “There is a threshold of decency below which no human being must fall, and I reject any status quo where citizens become disposable or the right to life becomes negotiable.
    “I acknowledge the comments and efforts of the presidency, state governments, the national and state assemblies, and the NPF,” Bakare said.
    He said it was evident that SARS was created with noble anti-robbery intentions, however, the grave irony was that it had become a grotesque embodiment of the problem it was created to solve.
    “This savage Nigerian-on-Nigerian cannibalism must end, and I expect a decisive and lasting solution to be implemented.
    “May the souls of the departed rest in peace and may the living forge a nation worthy of the resounding courage of the young men and women of the #EndSARS movement,” Bakare said.
  • Don’t kill Nigerians, kill corruption – Pastor Tunde Bakare warns Buhari

    Don’t kill Nigerians, kill corruption – Pastor Tunde Bakare warns Buhari

    The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has warned the President Muhammadu Buhari administration not to kill Nigerians.

    Bakare, speaking on The Platform, a special programme to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence Day anniversary, on Thursday asked the federal government to get rid of corruption instead.

    Buhari, during his 60th Independence Day speech, intimated that fuel will soon sell for N161 per litre.

    According to him, fuel subsidies were being paid into private pockets.

    “Don’t kill Nigerians, kill corruption. Because we knew that the subsidy being paid is going into private pockets,” the cleric said.

    Bakare also recalled that when he joined Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana; among others to protest during Goodluck Jonathan’s government in 2012, the protest was not against subsidy.

  • Covid-19: I can’t open Church, endanger people’s lives – Pst. Bakare

    The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said he is not prepared to open his church yet at the risk of putting the lives of his congregants in danger of contracting COVID-19.

    Bakare, who insisted that it was not yet time to open places of worship, said he was sorry for the country as some Christian and Muslim clerics were putting pressure on the government to open worship centres.

    In a sermon titled, ‘You are free to dream again,’ which he delivered on Saturday and was posted on Youtube, Bakare wondered if the religious leaders pilling pressure on the government to open worship centres were planning to take people to the graveyards.

    Bakare said, “I’m so sorry for our country at this juncture; I’m so sorry that we are pressurising the government to open churches and to open mosques; you want calamity upon calamity. The church has not been closed; nobody can close the church.

    “Yes, it is true that buildings are closed but the church is marching on. No one can close the church. And government can shut down the buildings; they cannot force us to go back because I’m not going to endanger the lives of our people.”

    Comparing the coronavirus pandemic with the biblical story of Noah and the flood, Bakare added, “Noah did not jump out of the ark; he sent the raven first to test the ground. The raven never returned. He sent the duck twice; on the third occasion, it did not return. He knew it was safe to go out but he still stayed there until God said, ‘Noah, come out!’

    “He (God) locked him in and He brought him out. Let’s be patient. And they now want to start carrying people to their gravesides and be praying for their families. Let’s stay within until that time when the calamity is over.”