Tunde Bakare, the serving
overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), says he worked with former
president Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure Nigeria
escaped disintegration in 2015.
Speaking in Glasgow, UK, to the
African forum Scotland and the Association of Nigerians in Scotland, the fiery
preacher warned that Nigeria was on a collision course again as the 2019
elections draw near.
“Unknown to many observers, in
2015, following the lifting of the embargo, I worked closely behind the scenes
with the two leading candidates in the presidential elections at the time, then
President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC,
towards ensuring that the election results were upheld and that the transition
was smooth,” he said.
“I saw at close quarters how the
fate of a nation could hang on a single decision. Therefore, believe me when I
tell you that we escaped disintegration by the whiskers.
“Now, four years after that
escape, our nation is once again headed on a collision course with probable
instability unless the tense atmosphere associated with our four-year
electocratic insanity is managed with utmost wisdom.
“Once again, I have found myself
in the inner workings of the chaotic political process and I can tell you that
we live in precarious times. How long can our nation stand if we continue along
this path? Is it not time to address the foundations once and for all?
“What, then, is the way forward
and what is the role of the diaspora? Answers to these questions will
constitute the concluding aspects of this address.”
He told the Nigerians in the
diaspora to observe what he called the Nehemiah model in fixing Nigeria, and
the rest of Africa.
Bakare shared his Distinct
Nationhood Agenda (DNA) and his political family, which “is propelled by one
agenda – Restructuring for a United Nigeria (RUN)”.
BAKARE: OBASANJO ASSEMBLED
ARGUABLY THE BEST TEAM IN NIGERIA’S HISTORY, BUT…
Bakare added that former
president Olusegun Obasanjo assembled arguably the most competent team by any
government in Nigeria’s history till date but left a lame, limping legacy.
He said Obasanjo could have given
priority to this team rather than hand Nigeria over to a legacy of lame and
limping successor governments that first sunk Nigeria into a constitutional
crisis.
“Between May 1999 and March 2007,
Nigeria’s external reserves compounded from 4.98 billion dollars to 59.37
billion dollars,” he said.
“Aside opportunistic factors such
as the oil windfall, these results were the outcome of astute economic
management by an economic team comprised of the likes of Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Dr. Charles Chukwuma Soludo and Mallam Nasir
El-Rufai, among others.
“That economic team was arguably
the most competent ever assembled by any government in Nigeria’s history till
date. Credit must be given to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for assembling that
team.”
“One would have thought that this
brilliant team that oversaw the Nigerian dimension of ‘Africa Rising’ would be
given priority in the succession plan of then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Instead, after a botched third
term agenda, the Obasanjo administration bequeathed to Nigeria a legacy of lame
and limping successor governments that first sunk Nigeria into a constitutional
crisis and then oversaw the plundering of the nation’s wealth in a free-for-all
corruption jamboree.”
Bakare, who visited the
Australian and the Scottish Parliament, was also awarded a fellowship of
African Centre for Research, Policy and Development, UK.
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