How, Christian Leaders Collaborated with Govt. Leaders to Loot our Common Treasury… Tunde Bakare

Pastor Tunde Bakara

The word of God says “then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in
my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah. 14:14)

This was the lamentation of prophet Jeremiah to the G.O's, Pastors and Ministers of his days. Is there any difference in our days, the answer is no. As our General Overseer, Pastors and Ministers of the sacred gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are now trading it for personal gains and rewards.

The Church of today, because of mundane and selfish agenda has deviated from God’s orginal purpose. Pastors are now over ambitious. This has brought a sharp division in the umbrella body of Christians, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN many have opined that the essence of forming CAN has not been realized, that its responsibility of uniting Christian irrespective of their denomination, has failed.

CAN has so much fraternized with the political system that officials seek contracts and position for their cronies. Many are tempted to ask, where is the confrontation of the Elijahs of our days as in the case of the Elijahs of the old? Where are the Nathans of our days like those of the old that could walk to David, their king and reprimand him of his sins.

Tunde Bakare, former running-mate of President Muhammadu Buhari on the platform of defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011; Bakare is still one of the Elijah and Nathans of our time. He is bold and fearless, even if it means forfeiting his comfort and rights for him to speak the trust, so be it. In this interview he disclosed details of his meetings with former President Goodluck Jonathan, and the benefits he got when the former President was still in office.

Speaking to THE INTERVIEW Magazine Bakare said, ''Let everyone declare what he has received. I can tell you what I received. I took two people there one day and he invited us to dinner. I had a bad sore throat that day, so I took a pass regarding the dinner.

''Finally, when the opportunity came and he (Jonathan) said, ‘I will like to give you something’. I [then] said ‘I like pens: so if you must give me anything, let it be a pen, so that I can show it to my people and say ‘the president gave me a pen''.

He said one day, after a meeting with Mr. Jonathan, a former minister in charge of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, rushed to offer him $50,000 for “transport”, an offer the pastor said he turned down.

''When we were leaving, Orubebe ran after me and offered me $50,000 for my transport. I said, ‘Haba, take your money, I am not for sale’. We said goodbye to him and the rest is history'', Bakare said.  

Shedding more light on his meetings with the former President, Bakare said, ''When he (Jonathan) became president, I said to him, ‘the things we marched and protested against, you are now perpetrating them – the same impunity.

''I gave him four points in writing. Before we left Lagos, I gave a copy to Pastor Adeboye and another to General Alani Akinrinade. I said, ‘we are going to say goodbye to this man’ because if a man cannot keep his own side of the bargain, because if you got here by the grace of God and not because of any pedigree and, within 10 years, had become the president of Nigeria.

''God has brought you into the kingdom for such a time as this, so you cannot begin to commit the same impunity. He reached out to me later and said, ‘look, let’s put that behind us; Nigeria’s situation is critical'

''Before I went, I called General Buhari and said ‘this man invited me, I don’t know what for.’ When I got there, he said he needed someone who could tell him the truth always. I said, ‘if that is what you want, you have me at your side''.

''However, you see, Christian leaders benefitted tremendously from his administration in terms of licences waivers and receiving monies to vote for looters to remain in office for more looting. The thing is, when you allow those in power to get you into any compromise, speaking to them will be very difficult. I don’t know if any of those allegations were true, but I have seen enough to begin to think that they were not able to use our overwhelming influence. If you have benefitted from evil, you cannot talk about it, nor criticize it. Let everyone declare what he has received,” Mr. Bakare said.

culled from THE INTERVIEW Magazine