ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s emergence as Nigeria’s leader was ordained by God, stressing that only divine will can determine his removal from office.
Speaking on Saturday at the inaugural edition of the Citadel School of Governance Dialogue Series in Lagos, Bakare addressed ongoing political developments and his stance on the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“If God wants to remove ‘Emilokan,’ He knows how to do it. You can’t get the kind of thing Tinubu has brought without God’s support,” Bakare declared, referencing Tinubu’s popular campaign slogan.
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The cleric maintained that Tinubu’s rise to power was not by chance but the result of divine orchestration.
“You can’t deny that his rise and what he has achieved came through the hand of God,” he added.
Bakare also disclosed that he had faced intense pressure from top political figures to join the ADC but had consistently resisted.
According to him, both senior politicians and younger allies have approached him to lend his influence to the party.
“There has been a lot of pressure on me from who is who to join ADC. They come to my home. Even while I was abroad, the hierarchy of that party kept calling, saying they needed my voice,” he said.
He revealed that even a younger political associate, who had benefitted from appointments in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), encouraged him to align with the ADC.
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However, Bakare made it clear that he had no intention of abandoning the APC, a party he described as one he helped to build.
“I am not going to take part in ADC. The last time I knew about ADC was about a plane that crashed. I wish them well because we need a robust opposition,” he said.
Bakare warned against political divisions within the South-West, drawing parallels to the historical rivalry between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Samuel Akintola.
“But you don’t birth a child called APC and then try to kill it yourself. We are not going to have another Awolowo-Akintola crisis in the South-West,” he warned.
Bakare, who contested the 2023 APC presidential primary against Tinubu, was also the running mate to Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential election under the now-defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC.