Tunde Bakare, the presiding pastor of Lagos-based Latter Rain Assembly, has announced that he will be crowned Nigeria’s next president because “to this end I was born.”
The fiery, vocal pastor made it known that he will be Nigeria’s 16th president after President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the 15th president of the country.
Bakare made the proclamation during a sermon; as seen in a video that has since gone viral.
“Take it to the mountain top if you have never heard it before. I am saying it to you this morning, in the scheme of things, as far as politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Buhari is number 15 and yours sincerely is number 16. I never said that to you before, I want to let you know it this morning; nothing can change it, in the name of Jesus. He (Buhari) is number 15; I am number 16,” Pastor Bakare said while placing his right hand on his chest.
“To this end was I born and for this purpose came I into the world. I have prepared for this for 30 years. When he (Buhari) chose to run in 2019, he is still number 15, when he steps out, I step in.
NEXT PRESIDENT TUNDE BAKARE???
I used to revere Pastor Tunde Bakare but when his “Prince of Adamawa” prophecy of 2012 failed to come to pass, I started seeing the man as a False Prophet.
How am I supposed to believe his self promoting prophecy of 2019?
Mtchewww! pic.twitter.com/QXvTd7WXNH
— Dadiyata The Jonathanian (@The_Jonathanian) September 22, 2019
His assignment is that of Moses, to take Nigeria to River Jordan, but he can’t cross it. It will take a Joshua to go to the other side and begin to distribute the resources to the people of this nation,” Bakare told his congregation.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and a leading opposition voice in Nigeria, picked holes in the logic of Pastor Bakare.
“If you say Buhari is Moses and you are Joshua that will succeed him then something is wrong,” he wrote in Twitter. “Buhari is NOT Moses and NO-ONE that endorses his vicious, divisive and sectional policies can be described as Joshua. He is NOT leading us to the Promise Land, he is leading us to HELL!”
If you say Buhari is Moses and you are Joshua that will succeed him then something is wrong. Buhari is NOT Moses and NO-ONE that endorses his vicious, divisive and sectional policies can be described as Joshua. He is NOT leading us to the Promise Land, he is leading us to HELL!
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 23, 2019
Chief Fani-Kayode also advised that Southerners should perish the thought of taking power in 2023 because the Northern politicians want to hold power for 20 more years.
Hear this and hear it well. Anyone that believes that a southerner will be President in 2023 is a fool. The north has ALREADY decided to keep power for the next 20 years and sadly there is NOTHING we can do about it. The only hope for the south is RESTRUCTURING or SEPARATION.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 22, 2019
He also kind of endorsed Bakare for veepee, saying he would be a better vice president than Yemi Osinbajo.
Rumours abound and if the truth be told @T_Bakare would be a much better VP than @ProfOsinbajo. I may not agree with him on everything but at least he is loyal,he is courageous,he is strong and he would never betray his people and faith.That is more than I can say for Osubande.
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 21, 2019
Tunde Bakare, 64, has never hid his desire to lead Nigeria someday, regaling his congregation now and again that he is only waiting for God’s appointed time.
Bakare was Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Buhari polled second, garnering 12, 214,853 votes behind eventual winner and then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan polled 22,495,187.
Bakare and Buhari have been buddies for a while. However, the pastor never misses the opportunity to criticize a host of President Buhari policies.
In 2018, Bakare said Buhari has failed woefully. He has also dismissed President Buhari’s anti-corruption war as a selective endeavor and his handling of the economy as abysmal.
“The allegations by the Nigerian public is that those around the president are also stealing, and some names have been mentioned. You cannot be a clean man surrounded by rogues. If you don’t deal with those rogues, they would colour you with the same tar”, Bakare once said.
Buhari would have concluded his constitutionally permissible second term in office by May of 2023.
The Nigerian presidency, which is often rotated between a predominantly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north, would most likely be left to the south–where Bakare hails from–in 2023.
Permutations, horse-trading and intrigues in this regard have already commenced.
Additional reporting by Pulse.
