By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Serving Overseer, Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has clarified that he will be Nigeria president without running for an election, saying that God who told him that he would be president will surely bring it to pass.
Bakare, who spoke on Sunday in his state of the nation broadcast at the Latter Rain Assembly, Ogba area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, stated that on New Year day, he did said that, while waiting on God, the Spirit of God said to him: “Politics is not over for you. There is still one thing left for you to do: Run for President…I will work it out Myself and make it happen in
due course.”
He said the declaration was not a presidential campaign announcement, but an invitation to prayers sent out to fellow labourers initiated in our corporate destiny as nation builders.
“To the uninitiated, that declaration was news, but to my partners in destiny, to whom indeed the request for prayers was extended, my journey and trajectory in the call to nation building is well known. It began on April 10, 1967 when, as a thirteen-year-old, I saw myself in a vision discussing the future of the nation with two Nigerian leaders, General Yakubu Gowon and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. That vision changed my life; it sustained me as a teenager and propelled me into student politics at the University of Lagos as I ran for the post of Student Union President.
“Nowhere in that declaration did I mention running for election. It is, however, not surprising that politicians and the politically-minded have interpreted it as such. Their narrow interpretation reminds me of Joshua’s description of the sound from the Israeli camp while Moses was away on the mountain with God. Whereas the Israelites were making merry, to Joshua, a man of war, every sound from the camp was a sound of war.
“In like manner, every time the word “run” is used in a statement, the politician thinks of elections, while a statesman thinks of the next generation. I am, by God’s grace, a nation builder propelled by the dream of a New Nigeria and hopefully will become a statesman someday. I am indeed running, but not for elections; it is a race of destiny and the destination is certain.
“To this end I was born, and for this purpose I came into the world: To lead Nigeria into her prophetic destiny.” It will happen in due course, in God’s way, and in God’s time. Some may ask, “How then can it happen, if not by elections?” My simple response is that there are biblical precedents, including the stories of Joseph, David, Nehemiah and Daniel; there are also historical precedents, including the case of George Washington whose unanimous election was merely an endorsement, and Gerald Ford who, under the terms of the 25th Amendment, took the oath as Vice President on December 6, 1973, and, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon, was inaugurated as the 38th President of the United States on August 9, 1974, without a single election,” he stated.
“According to Bakare, “if God leads me to serve my nation by election into political office, I state boldly that I will accept it with all my heart. In the year 2011, when the opportunity came to be running mate to then General Muhammadu Buhari, God said to me, “You are walking on a path that I have mapped out for you.” In His wisdom, God knew that phase of His plan was not going to lead to election victory, but it was a crucial phase of His plan, and I dare say that the dress rehearsal was worth it. As God unfolds the next phase, my response to Him is simply, “Here I am. Send me.”
“The important point to note is that it is my destiny to shepherd this nation into her prophetic destiny, and the time is at hand. The method by which God intends to do it is up to Him; I am neither flagging off an election campaign nor building political alliances. Like David, I will continue to shepherd God’s flock and, in His time and manner, I will shepherd the nation according to the integrity of my heart and the skillfulness of my hands.
“For the cynics who query the authority and audacity by which I speak of my assignment to Nigeria, let me remind them of the statement by Papa Chief Obafemi Awolowo before the High Court on September 11, 1963, just before he was sentenced to prison for treasonable felony: “It is, therefore, with a brave heart, with confident hope, and with faith in my unalterable destiny, that I go from this twilight into the darkness, unshaken in my trust in the Providence of God that a glorious dawn will come on the morrow…I…will not die in prison…I am confident that the ideals of social justice and individual liberty which I hold dear will continue to be projected beyond the prison walls and bars until they are realized in our lifetime.”
“History later justified these bold claims. Shortly after his release from prison, he became the Federal Commissioner for Finance and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council in the Gowon administration (today’s equivalent of Vice President and Minister of Finance rolled into one). In this capacity, Chief Awolowo helped Nigeria prosecute the Civil War without borrowing a dime, to the extent that General Yakubu Gowon, in a tribute to Chief Awolowo, acknowledged that the late sage helped save Nigeria from breaking up. My question to the cynics is therefore: How did Papa Chief Obafemi Awolowo know that he would not die in prison but would be released to serve Nigeria? If they cannot answer this question, then neither will I tell them by what authority I make these audacious declarations.”
Bakare said, having established the fact that he was ready to follow God’s leading in the service of the nation, “let me reiterate that what Nigeria needs now is not another election but a return to the drawing board to renegotiate our union.
