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Tag: TUNDE BAKARE

  • Ezekwesili, Tunde Bakare identify Nigeria’s greatest challenges

    Ezekwesili, Tunde Bakare identify Nigeria’s greatest challenges

    A former education minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, and Pastor Tunde Bakare have described corruption and leadership failures as Nigeria’s major obstacles to development.

    They spoke on Saturday in Lagos during the onboarding of the pioneer class of the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft, organised by the Citadel School of Governance.

    The programme, run in partnership with the University of Lagos Business School, admitted about 70 students for its maiden nine-month course subsidised by Bakare.

    Ezekwesili said many Nigerians appeared comfortable with the country’s challenges, stressing that Nigeria had no justification for its continued failures.

    She commended Bakare’s initiative, lamenting that institutions in both the public and private sectors were struggling due to deep-seated corruption undermining national progress.

    According to her, corruption remains corrosive and, if unchecked, becomes systemic. She likened corruption to cancer, warning it had already drained several generations of opportunities.

    Ezekwesili criticised the growing normalisation of corrupt practices, describing it as a betrayal of future generations for short-term gains.

    Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, said effective leadership required continuous learning, adding that unqualified people must never remain at Nigeria’s helm.

    He explained that the school was established to raise leaders equipped to meet governance demands in Nigeria and Africa.

    “The Citadel School of Governance was founded to become a globally recognised institution producing great leaders,” Bakare said.

    He stressed the project was not driven by money or political ambition, but by a desire for a functional nation that benefits every Nigerian.

    Bakare reaffirmed the school’s vision to nurture agile nations with responsive governments, where knowledge, service, and innovation guide leadership and development.

    According to him, bridging Nigeria’s governance gap requires exposing leaders to modern tools and enabling leadership mobility between private and public sectors.

    The Executive Director of the University of Lagos Business School, Prof Michael Adebamowo, said the course would adopt a problem-solving approach in training participants.

  • Immortalise Buhari with good governance – Bakare tells Tinubu

    Immortalise Buhari with good governance – Bakare tells Tinubu

    The Presiding Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare has urged  Nigerian leaders, including President Bola Tinubu, to immortalise  former president Muhammadu Buhari with good governance.

    Bakare, an associate of the late Awujale of Ijebu Land, Oba Sikiru Adetona and the late former president,  Buhari, made the appeal at a news conference at the CGCC,  Oregun Lagos on Sunday to pay tribute to the late leaders.

    According to Bakare, the exit of the leaders, who he said were his great friends and nationalists, on the same day, should be a rallying point for harnessing their patriotic legacies to move the nation forward.

    “I found myself pondering the fact that both leaders died  the same day,” the pastor said.
    Bakare, a former presidential running mate to Buhari, eulogised their  lives and legacies,  saying that the three of them were friends brought together by providence for national cohesion.

    He said that Buhari’s dream for a better Nigeria was peerless and resonated in his integrity and forthrightness to the nation’s development while in office.

    “The best Nigeria could do  for the late former president is to advance his dream of a functional Nigeria,  a Nigeria where there will no longer be  oppression of any kind, advancement of the rule of law and judicious deployment of the nation’s resources for the common good.”

    Bakare tasked Nigeria leaders to build on Buhari’s legacies for an equitable and just nation.

    He decried the near one party state the nation might  be  narrowing to,  saying that  such negated the progressive principles the former president stood for.

    He said that  Buhari’s quest for good governance and his policy interventions, including the not” too young to run” ,  opened the political space and paved way for young Nigerians to  be part of the nation’s politics.

    According to him, Buhari’s progressive stance can  be deployed as a social mobilisation template that when internalised, can  change the nation’s social-economic sphere to advance development..

    “Buhari  was a man with a dream of a New Nigeria—a dream he lived for;
    pursued persistently despite the challenges he encountered; one whose kind would be a tall order to find again.

    “This was a man whose integrity and discipline gave hope  A colossus has departed our land—one for whom there can hardly be  an ordinary Nigerian. A man whose lifelong desire was to make life better for his people.

    “I had the privilege of teaming up with him in his tireless quest to fulfill; a dream he worked tirelessly toward, from his youth.”

    Speaking of the late Awujale, Bakare expressed a deep sadness at his demise, referring to him as a father figure.

    “As Awujale’s body is laid to rest, I find it necessary to honour a man who never said no to me.  There was nothing I asked Kabiyesi for—on behalf of others—that he will not give.

    “Awujale was instrumental to the coalition of the parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) through which Buhari emerged president.

    “May God strengthen  and comfort Olori Adetona, their children, grandchildren, Ogun government and people,  and may the noble soul of Kabiyesi rest in perfect peace,” Bakare added.

  • “What we discussed” – Pastor Tunde Bakare after visiting Tinubu

    “What we discussed” – Pastor Tunde Bakare after visiting Tinubu

    Pastor Tunde Bakare, founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, has refused to divulge what transpired in his discussion with President Bola Tinubu when he visited the president on Wednesday.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Pastor Bakare to have rather said “what transpired in my discussion with him, stays with him and with me”.

    Speaking after visiting President Tinubu in Lagos, Bakare nevertheless disclosed that his conversation with the President focused on national development and the future of Nigeria.

    “Well, my visit to President Tinubu is about how the country will go well. My life, personal vision is to see a nation that works in my life time, and those things I’ve discussed with Mr. President.

    “They are not hidden things, but I’ve learnt that when you discuss with the person-in-charge, you leave it with him to do whatsoever he wills with whatever you’ve suggested.

    “I’ve had a private conversation with Mr. President, and I’m glad that he received me well. I trust that God will help our Nation.

    “What transpired in my discussion with him, stays with him and with me. God guiding him and giving him wisdom will help this nation not to go down the drain, but to bounce back so that he can live a mark that cannot be erased.

    “I’d like to see a peaceful Nation, I’d like to see Nigerians be their brother’s keeper. I’d like to see good collaboration between the best of North and the best of the South, to steer Nigeria in the best direction.

    “I’d like to see predictable progress in our nation. We’ve danced around some subjects for too long a time, it is time to take concrete action,” Bakare said.

  • My parents’ marriage was battleground against generational curses – Tunde Bakare’s daughter spills

    My parents’ marriage was battleground against generational curses – Tunde Bakare’s daughter spills

    The first daughter of the overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Tunde Bakare, Olubunmi Fabode, has described her parents’ marriage as a battleground against generational curses.

    Fabode, while speaking at an event organised to celebrate her parents’ 40th marriage anniversary, recalled a moment from her childhood when her father told her that he and her mother were going their separate ways.

    She, disclosed that her love for her siblings and her desire to keep them together motivated her to pray for her parents’ reconciliation.

    Fabode revealed that her parents’ marriage was not without its challenges, given their respective backgrounds.

    “When I was seven years old. My father came to the room and told me ‘Your mother and I are going our separate ways. I am telling you this so you can decide who you want to live with’,” she said.

    “I did not care so much about my mum and dad not living together, but I thought if they were separated, my siblings may choose either of our parents. And I knew that could not work because I absolutely love my siblings. They are the joy of my life. I knew that something had to happen to interrupt that plan was about to hatch.

    “My father grew up in a household of 12 wives and 22 children. His father died when he was three. My mother was born in Leicester. She was raised by a British foster parent, then her grandmother, and was eventually raised by her father and stepmother. They each came from brokenness, dysfunction and upheaval. Somehow, they found each other and they decided to try. With nothing, but their faith in God. And the Bible as a guide to create something new that they had not experienced.”

    Fabode described her parents’ marriage as a battleground against generational curses, where they confronted and overcame the darkness of their past.

    She praised her parents for creating an atmosphere of love and for being role models.

    “Their marriage was not just a union, it was a battleground. A place where generational curses were confronted and wrestled to the ground,” she said.

    “A dear aunty once told me something that stayed with me. She said the first generation of any marriage that emerges from a broken home always faces an extraordinary battle because the enemy is working to perpetrate darkness from one more generation.

    “Both of them stood in the gap and said this far and no further. It is because of this testament that we are celebrating here today. Two people decided they could do something new under God. He was a casual Christian before he became married, but when he saw generational curses, nobody taught him to pray.

    “It came from inside. My mother, the woman that she is today: resilient, and nurturing, she learnt in this marriage to become that. She didn’t have a model. My father made sure we never lacked anything. My parent created an atmosphere of love.”

  • Late Mohbad was drinking and smoking – Tunde Bakare

    Late Mohbad was drinking and smoking – Tunde Bakare

    The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, has faulted late singer Ilerioluwa Aloba, also known as Mohbad for causing his own death.

    He spoke at a church event in Leicester, United Kingdom, yesterday.

    Speaking on the theme, ‘Harvest,’ the clergyman said, “My wife and I listened to a tape last night on MohBad. How many of you know MohBad? The Nigerian artiste who died at 27? MohBad.

    “When he was drinking and smoking and associating with evil men, he did not know that the harvest would come so soon and that he would soon be cut down at the prime of youth.

    “I am not blaming him, I am just telling you. Is MohBad a good name? Moh Bad.”

    The body of the late singer, who died on Sept. 12 at the age of 27 years was buried on Sept. 13 and exhumed on Thursday for the autopsy.

    Youths across the Federation took to the streets in protests following the circumstances surrounding the death of the singer.

  • I warned that ‘Emilokan’ politics would breed imperial presidency, says Bakare

    I warned that ‘Emilokan’ politics would breed imperial presidency, says Bakare

    Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, on Sunday said he warned against the “Emilokan” kind of politics.

    President Bola Tinubu made the famous “Emi lokan (It is my turn)” speech on June 2, 2022 ahead of the 2023 election following a seeming lack of support from former President Muhammadu Buhari

    Speaking during a State of the Nation broadcast at his church in Ikeja, Lagos, on Sunday, Bakare said he warned that ’emilokan’ would breed “imperial presidency”.

    While speaking on current national issues, the cleric said, “I’m reminded of the warning that I sounded to Nigerians in January 2023 in my address titled, ‘Bridging the gap between politics and governance.

    “I warned that the politics of entitlement; the ’emilokan’ type of politics would breed an imperial presidency, one that would slide towards dictatorship and would be intolerant of dissent.”

    He also warned the Federal Government against making the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele a scapegoat over how he handled the country’s monetary policy.

    According to him, Emefiele couldn’t have acted without presidential authorization.

    “Mr Godwin Emefiele may have made the wrong judgement calls in the management of Nigeria’s monetary policy, but he must not be made a scapegoat.

    “In the provisions of the central bank of Nigeria, CBN Act 2007, there is every possibility that the erstwhile central bank governor did not act without presidential authorization.

  • Tunde Bakare reveals only way he can address Tinubu

    Tunde Bakare reveals only way he can address Tinubu

    General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said that he will never call the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his president, will only address him as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    The clergyman said this during a webinar on Saturday, May 27, after delivering his speech on the Zoom programme titled, ‘Building the New Nigeria: The Role of the Diaspora.”

    Bakare had said the 2023 elections were below acceptable standards.

    When asked if he would be happy to work for the new government as a ‘Minister of Diaspora Engagements,’ the clergyman laughed and spoke about how he addresses President Buhari.

    Bakare said he recently told Buhari that sometimes he called him President of Nigeria and other times, he called him “My President.”

    He however said he would never refer to Tinubu as “My President.’”

    “Last Wednesday, I was at the Glass House where he (Buhari) has been restricted now because the main house is being renovated. I said I have done that for you. I want you to know that, because of the circumstances of your flying into power on the wings of integrity and incorruptibility, but you’re now passing onto someone who does not have that value,” the cleric told the participants.

    He continued;  “at any public lecture anywhere, before this mess is cleared off, I will address Asiwaju as a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I will never call him my president.”

    He said he didn’t participate in the elections, therefore, no one would say he lost in the exercise.

    Bakare, who participated in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary election on June 14, 2022 and polled no vote, said; “I participated in the primary, and there were hundreds who participated only by stepping down, so there is no shame in what we have done. We spoke truth to power within seven minutes. I wasn’t there when they voted, I wasn’t there when they scored (me) zero, but we won that badge of zero and badge of honour.”

  • Pastor Tunde Bakare reveals plots to manipulate 2023 polls

    Pastor Tunde Bakare reveals plots to manipulate 2023 polls

    The Serving Overseer of Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare has revealed plots by certain politicians to manipulate the forthcoming elections and called on Nigerians to guard against vote buying.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Pastor Bakare, who doubles as the Convener, Save Nigeria Group (SNG), stated this during his State of the Nation address, which also doubled as his new year message, at the church headquarters in Lagos.

    Bakare, who tagged his message: “Bridging the Gap between Politics and Governance”, however, said he foresees a new Nigeria after the forthcoming general elections.

    He paid tribute to the nation’s fallen heroes for the supreme sacrifice which they paid to ensure Nigeria’s unity and commended the military officers on field for their gallantry in the fight against terrorism and other forms of criminality in the country.

    The former presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) said that Nigeria was going into the forthcoming elections with issues that had posed challenges to it.

    According to him, the emergence of the three major presidential candidates from the three major ethnic nationalities in the country speaks volume of how God will shine His light in the middle of pervading darkness to make a new Nigeria.

    “The election is coming 30 years after the aborted June 12 elections and this will serve as a reminder of a generational change of some sort.

    “God has come out in His full majesty to re-engineer Nigeria to a new one that people will be proud of once again. The time is up for divisive leaders who are preying on the country,” he said.

    The cleric, who spoke about the possibility of some politicians attempting to manipulate the forthcoming elections, called on Nigerians to guard against vote buying.

    He, however, expressed happiness that none of the presidential candidates had military background, saying that this was a plus to the nation’s democracy.

    Bakare urged Nigerians to cast their votes based on personality rather than on sentiments, adding that the difference between politics and governance was in the delivery of services for the common good.

    While praying for the good of Nigeria, he named the forthcoming general elections as “Nigeria wins”.

  • 2023: Okotie, Bakare taking Nigerians for granted – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: Okotie, Bakare taking Nigerians for granted – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

    This declaration by Edmund Burke is apropos for the clamour for religious leaders to join politics and lead by uprightness in governance.

    But it appears that Nigeria’s “Men of God” of the Christian faith have taken undue advantage of the people’s desire for change, to want to cut corners to get to power.

    Without as much as doing the heavy lifting of politicking and engaging the voters, some clergymen want power on a platter via gimmickry, blackmail or barefaced threats.

    The religiously-inclined office seekers employ diverse strategies, the most abused being to invoke God’s name as anointing, choosing or endorsing them for president.

    They claim, without going through the rigours of an election, that God has anointed them to inherit the victory of a president-elect, who, they predict, won’t be sworn-in due to ill-health, death or other untoward circumstances.

    The clergymen also claim that God has endorsed them to take over from an incumbent president, in a caretaker or an interim capacity, until a new president is elected.

    And they strive to get to power by asking presidential candidates to drop their ambition and allow them to be president, to tackle thorny national issues of the day.

    In these ploys, the political clerics assume that by invoking God’s name, the electorate would vote for them, or agitate and plead for power to be freely given to them.

    Let’s check the electoral landscape since democracy returned to Nigeria in 1999, and take a couple of such clerics that had literally thrown their hats into the ring.

    Back in 2006, prior to the 2007 general election, popular televangelist and former music star, Pastor Chris Okotie, formed the Fresh (Democratic) Party (FP), to use as a vehicle to the presidency.

    But each election cycle, Okotie hardly left the comfort zones of his Household of God Church in the Oregun area of Lagos State, the klieg-lights of television houses, and the print media, to solicit votes to be president.

    He usually devoted a major session of every Sunday service to politicking, laying out the ills of the country, and how God had ordained him to become the “Messiah President” to take Nigeria to the Promised Land.

    He would repeat the same themes, and act likewise at subsequent polls if his party and his name scaled the qualifying requirements of the electoral umpire.

    Yet, Okotie and his party had barely reached or crossed the thousand-mark at the polls nationwide, making polity watchers to wonder why the voters shun him always.

    Taken as a mandate, Okotie can record huge votes even from the “hallelujah” devotees of his church, and the non-congregant recipients of his yearly philanthropic awards.

    But having taken vying for, and securing the presidency as a huge joke, Pastor Okotie is at it again for the 2023 presidential run, devising another ploy to get to power.

    He’s asking the presidential candidates of the political parties for the February polls to step down for him, to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023.

    Accordingly, Okotie has urged Buhari to hand over to him as an interim president in 2023, as he claims to be the “right person to right the wrongs in the country.”

    Okotie’s exact words: “I want to appeal to all presidential candidates to withdraw from the race and allow me to come in as the interim president. I want to implore Asiwaju (Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to support my government for the betterment of the country.

    “And I also want to tell (Peter) Obi (the Labour Party (LP) flagbearer), that the system that introduced him cannot take him anywhere because he cannot operate in the system we have now. All the candidates should support me to succeed Buhari as the interim president.”

    Okotie’s recourse to getting to power by any means but democratic, even as he admits the hijack of the polity by strong men, has received hisses from former Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central).

    In a tweet, the rights activist advised Okotie to go revive his political platform of Fresh Democratic Party, rather than attempting to derail the march to the 2023 elections.

    Pastor Bakare, General Overseer of Lagos-based Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), continues to glory in his zero score at the APC primaries early in June.

    The lawyer-turned cleric, who’s candidate Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 polls, claims he’s been ordained by God to take over from Buhari, as the “16th President of Nigeria,” on an interim basis from May 2023.

    Days after flunking the primaries, Bakare resurrected his 2019 “prophecy” of being Nigeria’s 16th president, noting he lost the primaries because he refused to compromise.

    “Our heads remain unbowed because we did not compromise on the values that are integral to building a New Nigeria,” he told cheering congregants on June 12.

    “For us, the means has always been as important as the end. This is why we confidently wear our ‘zero votes’ as a badge of zero tolerance for a certain kind of politics.”

    Bakare, who shelled out N100 million, possibly donated by his congregants, to obtain the APC nomination forms, can’t be serious talking about not compromising values.

    As he congratulates Tinubu for winning the APC primaries, Bakare wants a short cut to power by revisiting his old prediction: “I’m the next president come May 29, 2023.”

    Recall that in September 2019, Bakare, delivering a church sermon, declared that “nothing can stop me from succeeding (newly re-elected President) Buhari” in 2023.

    He told his ecstatic congregation: “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 (Bakare) 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 (and) I am number 16.”

    Isn’t it ridiculous that the religious partisans talking about a “New Nigeria” are craving for undemocratic tactics of the bigoted military era to install them as president?

    No wonder Pastors Okotie and Bakare still live the dream of becoming president anchored on a reported prophetic word of God, rather than through an electoral process!

    Save a military coup in this season of “ObIdient” politics, and the #EndSARS on Nigerians’ minds, the Okotie and Bakare longing to be president will remain a pipe dream!

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria

  • [BREAKING] APC primaries: I won’t step down for any aspirant – Bakare declares

    [BREAKING] APC primaries: I won’t step down for any aspirant – Bakare declares

    The senior Pastor of Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Tunde Bakare, has said that he is still in the race for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and not ready to step down for anybody.

    Bakare in his long speech gave a shott account on how he was privileged to nurture the APC to what it has become today to ensure that the party becomes great.

    Pastor Bakare who insisted that he is stepping up in the game urged his supporters to cue behind him.

    He said:”Today I am offering myself. I will instill the young people with a touch of hope when I become president. I will solve Nigeria’s problems and ensure peace, prosperity and possibility.

    “Experience people have brought us to where we are today. Many of the experience people brought corruption and are responsible for our predicament today. Time will tell when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC start coming after them.

    “We need more than experience, we need genius that will be in the fore front of Science and Technology. I am stepping up. My name is Tunde Bakare and I am here to solicit for your support”.