Tunde Bakare: A demagogue who preys upon people's fears and prejudices
- Details
- Category: GENERAL
- Published on Monday, 06 August 2012 12:33
- Written by Felix Ogunsuyi Vescovi
Like good reformists, we thought, once freed from the ugliness of military rule, they would honor and elevate the nation’s true patriots in ways that the so called leaders had not done since independent. But now, in the years following the rebirth of our current democracy, the general public seemed to succumb to the deceit and flattery
of flourishing demagogues, who were the popular fighters of self-seekers and corrupt leaders. Today, the Federalists have become confused and geo-political and 13 years of PDP do not give damn. They have robbed us of our faith in the nationhood. We looked at the opposition. The opposition? Can someone hear the voice of Tunde Bakare?
Tunde Bakare likes to present himself as a straight-talker, but a cynic inspecting the rattling clergyman’s hiding agenda is bound to mutter. But there are also genuine psychological reasons behind Tunde Bakare’s strategy, otherwise no right thinking Nigerian would buy into this his current “spin” -that Goodluck Jonathan is an evil-foreigner. The pastor’s strategy lied, deceived and keep committing outright fraud about every single point it uses to justify attacking Jonathan (except on the one that the President has disappointed majority of the Nigerian public). As we take caution monitoring each of the dozens of individual deceptions, lies and misleading statements that Bakare and his aides and organisations now use to push their own political agenda, let's not lose track of the big picture, the picture of how to put the right people in our leadership and establish effective and triballess institutions.
Tunde Bakare current strategy against Jonathan and the PDP holds pitfalls for the opposition in whatever form that is. Bakare is not a politician, he has no political integrity and technical skills to handle political challenging assignments, policies, plans, projects, ideas and have no initiative solutions to problems. Integrity is consistency of actions, methods, values, principles, expectations and outcomes. It is doing what is right, both legally and morally at all-time, even when no one is looking. And Tunde Bakare has failed in all these.
My view about Tunde Bakare changed some time in 2006 when I was researching for an article on Nigerian Churches as an emerging market. I was reading this newspapers story about Pastor Tunde Bakare who lives or spends half of his time in the US but fly to Nigeria on weekends to preach on Sundays and fly back to the States. I was very surprised at why an educated man, who claimed God’s call, would keep forcing vulnerable people to pay money he will then use to stay in America and buy first-class tickets every weekend. Honestly, after that story I read though I mentioned his name once or twice in my writing(s) I grouped him among the so called preying Nigerian pastors who places course on church members if they do not pay money into the church’s bank account.
Then I heard his name again in 2010 on some Save Nigeria group organisation. The group he claimed was for the people and we all believed him (then). They took to the streets for Vice President Jonathan to become President Jonathan. We all thought it works but I held my nerves. Sooner, there were revelations, his nocturnal moves into Aso Rock, the position-promise that Goodluck Jonathan failed to keep, money collected from the Villa and many more. We all know what happened to Tunde Bakare. He was expelled with his apprentice Yinka Odumakin and they took refuge immediately in the then newly formed CPC. He (Tunde Bakare) never actually cared about the expulsion from SNG because, his eyes were set on Aso Rock.
When I heard that Tunde Bakare was chosen by Gen Buhari to be his 2011 Presidential election running mate, I told myself instantly that was the “wrongest” choice the CPC would make in its first general election. Was I right? You will find out bellow. I criticised the choice but I was later persuaded by the CPC argument that since the idea of geopolitical dispensation is now a reality in Nigeria politics. That is if a president comes from the East, the vice has to be from the North or if the President is a Christian, the Vice has to be a Muslim. Bullshit! Nonsensical bullshit!! I did not buy the argument but I respected it. And Tunde Bakare was the right choice! He just did an incredible job for Goodluck Jonathan but was not paid and they broke up. So the CPC was ready to exploit that momentum and Tude Bakare agreed to make noise for the CPC for the post of the VP.
During campaign tours and rallies, Tunde Bakare sang his choir-songs and folded the hems of his starched agbada but never tell a soul what he was going to do for the country, he never even saw the party manifesto. In an interview when he was asked his experience for a VP, his reply was shocking. “…Did David had any experience when God called him to later kill the Goliath?” There I asked myself “is this guy for real? A potential number-two who might soon be taking decisions that will affects over 160 million people using probably an imaginative biblical story to prove his qualification” Damn!!!
Then the last the straw that broke the camel's back was the climax of the famous “merger” coalition that never was between the CPC and the ACN. Let me rush through the story which you already know. The deadlock in the merger final talk was that the CPC cannot produce the president and the Vice. The ACN was ready to drop Ribadu and accept Buhari on the condition that the VP has to come from ACN. A CPC President and an ACN Vice President sounded great to the merger-talk but the idea to have Buhari and another name on the ballot instead of Buhari-Bakare at the 12th hour might confuse the voters, CPC argued. Good thought and well-argued I thought. I was surprised ACN saw this point too. But the then senior partner of the two parties wanted a deal. And the deal was Buhari-Bakare ticket for the election and if (a big IF) there was a victory, bla-bla-bla month(s) after the inauguration, Bakare will step down for the ACN candidate. Deal!
But there was the last hurdle. The CAN needed guarantee for this deal to be binding. A promise from the CPC that if (“IF”) the coalition gets to Aso Rock, in so and so time Bakare will give way. For me, that was a fair request, a smart one indeed. During the negotiation, Bakare was heard loud and clear that this was not about an individual, it was about the nation. He preached that his involvement in the whole “thing” was for the general good and he will do everything within his power to put the country first before his interests. That sounded great too.
The ANC needed a concrete and tangible assurance more than a mere preaching. The needed guarantee was for Tunde Bakare to sign an undertaking that if everything goes according to plan, he will resign at a named period after the inauguration. Everyone waited and waited and waited and waited but Bakare did not sign any undertaking. When pressure started to mount, Tunde Bakare selfishly shifted the whole burden on Gen Buhari. He told the deal maker he is not signing any agreement and that Buhari called him into the race and he should use his own mouth to tell him to go before he can go. Everyone was shocked. Bakare single handedly ruined and killed a coalition that may have sent the evil PDP out of our lives by now.
As soon as the election dust settles, Tunde Bakare realised that his political career might not survive in the CPC but began to be half-half with the party. He then crawled himself back into the SNG and resubmitted himself into his orchestrated plan, using the sacred teaching machinery (his church) to induce vulnerable people into his hiding political agenda. Now you hear him committing treason everyday, desperate to be part of the eaters.
