Nigeria better together, says Pastor Bakare

Tunde Bakare, overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, has assessed the various challenges facing the country including mistrust fuelling the call for disintegration but notes that Nigeria will be better staying together.

He also says President Muhammadu Buhari has disappointed Nigerians.

Bakare gave the views while speaking with Dele Momodu, a journalist and publisher of Ovation Magazine, in a virtual interview on Instagram, held on Tuesday.

The pastor said the drum of disintegration “is louder than before” but called for efforts to preserve the country’s unity.

“Nigeria will survive and will become the Nigeria of our dreams but right now, things are not together, especially with the drum of disintegration which is louder than before,” he said.

The cleric also said, “Nigeria is better together. If we go back together to the basics of how we came together, looking at 1960 and 1963, we can still be together.

“The truth of the matter is it is still the same Buhari. In the midst of many competing interests, we respond differently. As far as I know, the president is still himself. Some have even asked me if he is not somebody else. And I said, if that were so, the whole world would know.

“Power changes people. Has power changed him or is he making the best of the situation or the circumstances he has found himself in? He will be the one to answer that question.

“As far as I know, the expectations of Nigerians, including the gentleman interviewing me, and everyone who rose up at that time to say we need a breath of fresh air by bringing in President Buhari, I think whatever it is, the expectations have not been met and, therefore, there is a gut feeling of disappointment everywhere.

 “We are the government. The citizens have the right to demand good governance and nothing can stop that.

“People deserve the government they get, and the government deserves the kind of people that support them, or say ‘no, we can’t take this anymore.”