Why I’ll never call Tinubu my president – Bakare
The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has explained why he will never call the President-elect, Asuwaju Bola Tinubu his president but rather address him as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The cleric made this disclosure while responding during a Question & Answer session after delivering his speech on the Zoom programme titled ‘Building the New Nigeria: The Role of the Diaspora’ organised by the PTB4Nigeria In Diaspora Group.
Bakare during a webinar on Saturday, criticized the 2023 elections claiming that it was marred by series of malpractices and that the Independent National Electoral Commission betrayed the confidence reposed in it as the outcome of the election did not reflect the the voices of the citizens.
While speaking earlier during the programme that began 7pm with over 200 listeners, he said the 2023 elections were below acceptable standards.
On whether he would be happy to work for the new government as a Minister of Diaspora Engagements, he laughed and said he would say what he said to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), last week.
He revealed that he told Buhari that sometimes he called him President of Nigeria and other times, he called him “My President.”
The cleric and politician who was a running mate to the outgoing President Buhari under defunct Congress for Progress Change, said, “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.
He said that at “any public lecture anywhere, before this mess is cleared off, I will address Asiwaju (Tinubu) as a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I will never call him my president.”
He disputed that he didn’t participate in the elections, and therefore, no one could say he lost.
Bakare did not have a single vote when he took part in the All Progressives Congress presidential primary in June 2022, where nomination forms were sold for N100 million.
While explaining why he did not polled a single vote, the cleric said, “I participated in the primary, and there were hundreds (of persons) who participated only by stepping down, so there is no shame in what we have done. We spoke truth to power.
“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,” he said, adding that this was because some defeats were more triumphant than victories.
Answering the question, he said if he was called to be a minister under the incoming government, there would be conditions to it, “but I am not desperate to be a minister, not at all. I was offered before but I turned it down. My life is not just to take photographs with the president and shake hands.
“But we will do if it will benefit even one citizen.”
Tinubu will on Monday, May 29, be sworn in as the President of the country.
On Thursday, Tinubu was handed the transition report by Buhari, where he also promised not to disappoint Nigerians.
He pledged to address the security and power crises, among other challenges confronting the country.