- Bakare Hits at President and 22 Govs
Serving Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly (LRA),Pastor Tunde Bakare, who was running mate of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 general elections, has expressed disappointment in the President and 22 Governors for attending the wedding of Kano State Governor’s daughter, shortly after the kidnapping of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi . The clergyman says he cannot comprehend what the President and 22 state governors were doing at the Kano wedding, while 110 Dapchi schoolgirls are still in captivity.
On Saturday, March 3, at least 22 governors converged on Kano, to celebrate the wedding of Idris Ajimobi and Fatima Ganduje, the son and the daughter of Abiola Ajimobi, and Ibrahim Ganduje, governors of Oyo and Kano states, respectively. Also in attendance was the president, and high-ranking members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state.
Bakare says the wedding, which came two days after Boko Haram killed some UN aid workers in Rann, and two weeks after the abduction of the Dapchi school girls in Yobe, shows the insensitivity of Nigerian leaders, the Cable reports
Bakare said: “Forgive my ill-mannerism, but I could not comprehend why a governor will celebrate the wedding of his daughter, and another governor of his son, on the front pages of newspapers, flashing it before our eyes, when other peoples’ daughters are in captivity.”
“If any of them had lost a daughter in that captivity, would they celebrate that way? I know the Bible says rejoice with them that rejoice, but I do not know what the president of Nigeria was doing there.
“And somebody came to say, let me explain to you, it is Islamic tradition, before this time, about January, they had agreed, that he (Buhari) will be the one to give the bride away and (Bola) Tinubu will be the one to pay the dowry, and present the son, and they agreed long before now.
“I looked at him and said the president of Nigeria wanted to come to my daughter’s wedding, and I said to him, sir, don’t come. That is beneath your office. Face the work of the state and keep serving.
“And 22 governors showed up to mark register, when 110 daughters of citizens of your nation were captured by Boko Haram that you said you have already technically defeated?
“It just shows how insensitive our leaders are. We have gotten to a stage that our president has become a king and a monarch. That his son who rode his pleasurable bike that almost claimed his life, will be returning from an overseas trip, where he had received special healthcare that Nigerians cannot afford, that it took a whole minister of state to go and welcome him, because he has no job.”
Speaking at the Latter Rain Assembly on Sunday, March 4, Bakare said anyone who knows the true state of things in Nigeria will weep for the country.
He said: “If you truly know the truth, you will weep, if you know how much we are owing as a nation, you will weep. For 16 years of PDP they borrowed N6 trillion, for three years of APC, they borrowed N11 trillion. “And they are not going to pay the debt. You and I, and our children, and our children’s children will pay the debt, unless they write them off again.”
On a previous occasion, Bakare stated that President Buhari can choose to stand for re-election in 2019 if he so desires. The cleric made his comments on Saturday, February 3, during a town hall meeting in London. He also stated that the president’s health condition had improved.
Bakare further commended former President Goodluck Jonathan for accepting the results of the 2015 presidential election even though it was not in his favour, and urged Nigerians to thank the ex-president for preventing a bloodbath in the nation by accepting the result.
