In his State of the Nation Broadcast (SOTN), Pastor Tunde Bakare took a swipe at the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In his speech, Pastor Bakare, a presidential aspirant of the APC and Presiding Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church stated:
“Politics of entitlement, this is the emi lokan type of politics that insists on one’s turn even if circumstances do not align.” In a seeming swipe at the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, he continued, “politics of entitlement also exist as a perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve but to gratify long-term personal ambition.” The PDP candidate is contesting the fifth time for the presidency.
“It could also manifest as insistence on a given political office as a reward for what one considers to be a lifetime of sacrifice to the nation.
“Entitlement politics will breed an imperial presidency that is distant from the people and has no sense of responsibility or accountability to the people. Such imperial governance will slide towards dictatorship and will be intolerant of dissent.” He added.
The term “emi lokan” which is Yoruba for “it’s my turn” was made popular by the APC presidential candidate in Abeokuta while canvassing for support before his party’s primaries in June 2022.
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Pastor Tunde Bakare in his 55 minutes broadcast which was tagged “Bridging The Gap Between Politics and Governance” started by saluting Nigeria’s troops as the date of the broadcast coincided with the Armed Forces Remembrance Day. He also spoke about the inclusion of the South East in the politics of the nation.
He noted, “five decades after the end of the civil war, unanswered questions that border on national integration continue to stare us in the face even as the true political inclusion of the South East remains a strong imperative in our quest for nationhood. The momentum around the candidacy of the Labour Party’s Mr. Peter Obi has further brought this to the fore reminding us that as a nation, we cannot face our future with the structural imbalances and inequities that defined our past.”
Speaking on the Obidient movement, he said “the Obidient movement has also become a memory jogger in the generational context reminding us of how the undesirable state of the nation and the inadequacies of the old political order can push the youths to the wall, provoking a younger generation that does not pull punches in confronting whoever appears to represent the old order. Unfortunately, nationhood has historically been the casualty and Nigeria has been the loser in such inter-generational wars.”
He also addressed the support for Mr. Obi by the Nigerian church community. In his words, “the optics of a political strategy that is identifying more with one religion than the other is a sad reminder of the lingering divisions clogging the wheels of our journey to nationhood.”
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“The messaging and mannerism of some church leaders in this regard is also a pointer to the failure of the ecclesiastical order to recognize that in Nigeria’s nationhood equation, you cannot wish Ishmael away.” He added.
Countdown To The Elections
As the nation countdowns to the 2023 presidential elections, the political season has been heating up, and the season has abounded with usual political rhetorics. From Peter Obi’s outing at Chatham House to the APC calling for a probe of the PDP presidential campaign due to allegations of money laundering by one of Atiku’s ex-media aides, the season has been full of activities.
The electoral process has been threatened by attacks on INEC facilities across the country, particularly in the South East. The latest is on the 15th of January 2023 in Enugu South LGA. Despite these incessant attacks, the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has assured that the elections will go according to plan in Nigeria.
