The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, (CGCC), formerly Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has boasted he is a nation builder and would contest the 2023 presidential election if God gives him a go-ahead.
The cleric who had earlier claimed he is not interested in meeting president Muhammadu Buhari again met him on Friday in a closed-door meeting.
Speaking to journalists after his meeting with the president, Pastor Bakare when asked if he is planning to contest in the 2023 presidential election responded; “I am a nation builder, if God wants me to do that, and the people of Nigeria will appreciate that, why not? I’m as free as anybody to do anything with my time. I’ve pastored a church for 33 years, now we raise new leaders. I want to focus on nation-building.
“The Office of the President is only one office, there are so many other things we can do as people to support whoever is there to make sure that we do not go into retrogression, but begin to make steady progress as a people. I’ve already communicated, my plans to Mr President, and it stays between us.”
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He however opposed the zoning of the presidency. In his argument, Bakare said; “I had said it on the 3rd of October. It’s our immaturity, politically and otherwise, that makes us say power must either be in the North or be in the South, instead of looking for the best, the fittest, the most competent, and people of character, who love this nation.
“Listen to me, if where the president comes from will make the place he has come from to be better, the Northern part of Nigeria should be richest and should be the most progressive and the most developed because out of 61 years, the north has produced either the president or heads of state for 40 to 41 years and yet, see the retrogression in the North.
“If it’s from the South, why should a person like President Obasanjo freeze and seize the account of Lagos State in his tenure? If it’s from South-South or Southeast why couldn’t President Jonathan use all his powers to develop South-South/Southeast?
“Not where they come from, it’s what they carry and what they have to offer. May the best of the best of Nigerians rise, whether they’re from the east, from the west, from the north, and the south.
“If there are agreements between politicians among themselves on rotation, a bargain is a bargain. That’s between them. But as far as this country is concerned, what we need at this stage is a man who can drive us to the Eldorado.”
