Church in the News: Tunde Bakare: From pulpit to soap box

Just came across this very interesting opinion piece. The writer thinks that Pastor Bakare is wasting his time and should have stayed in advocacy. What do y'all think?  Win or lose though, I think Pastor Bakare will be the big news item  of this election cycle.

It has the colouration of a transmutation, but to those who know Pastor Tunde Bakare, General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Ogba, Lagos, fairly, closely, his acceptance of General Muhammadu Buhari’s offer of running with him in the April presidential election is not in any way out of sync with his character; it is really an opportunity for the fiery cleric to accomplish his desire of being an agent of change in the country.
Long before it became expedient for him to convene the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Bakare had said in an interview that, “I’m a trained lawyer. I trained under Gani Fawehinmi and Rotimi Williams. I wanted to practise my profession. I had three things at the back of my mind in my life: to be a successful legal practitioner, to get to the peak of my career and to be a successful millionaire. I wanted to use both law and business to go into politics. That was my triangle.”

Being a man of uncommon determination, Bakare, at a relatively young age, was close to achieving the goal he had set for himself. He was already making wave as a brilliant lawyer, winning landmark cases one after the other and he was doing well in business. He brought Skoda Motors into Nigeria and had a number of factories to boot. He was also doing well in international business.
However, before he could perfect his plan of using business and law as his route to politics, there was a divinely ochestrated detour; Bakare was called into the ministry and he had to subjugate his personal desire to the divine will.
Though taken out of mainstream politics, Bakare has always been interested in the polity. He is about the only clergyman who never passes up an opportunity to air his views on the polity, no matter how unpopular.
He has consistently commented on the polity over the years, showing the leaders where they erred and availing them the mind of God about the nation.
Being a pastor of the prophetic bent, Bakare has pronounced many prophecies; some coming to pass with the precision of a laser guided missile and others completely off the mark.
On April 3, 1993, while the nation was warming up for the presidential election, the fearless cleric said though there would be an election, there would not be any result. He also prophesied that both the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) would fail and everything happened just as he prophesied. He also sent a warning to the winner of that year’s presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, urging him not to go ahead with it, saying it would not end well with him, if he pursued his ambition of becoming the nation’s president. Abiola later died in detention.
Also in 1993, while the nation was concerned that General Ibrahim Babangida would perpetuate himself in office after the annulment of the presidential election, Bakare clearly declared that, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Lord said to me, either before or on that day, he (Babangida) will make some mistakes and he will have to go.” Again, it turned out exactly like that as the former military president on August 27, 1993 announced that he was stepping aside and installed an interim government.
However, after the election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, Bakare prophesied, “Obasanjo is not your messiah, he is ‘King Agag’; he will be the first victim of a prophetic axe. It is coming; it is coming upon his head before May 29.” Bakare explained that Obasanjo was not the Messiah the nation expected at the time, adding that he should have been slaughtered by General Abdulsalami Abubakar but since the former Head of State spared him just like the biblical King Saul spared Agag, who he should have killed, God had made up His mind that Obasanjo had to die and it would be before May 29, 1999. But that did not happen.
It is not only political leaders that have been at the receiving end of Bakare’s acerbic criticism; church leaders too have come under his unsparing attack. Bakare has had cause to criticise his fellow pulpiteers for not taking up the challenge to be the agent of change in the nation. He is of the belief that church leaders should have no qualms about squaring up to political leaders and showing them where they are wrong.
In an interview, he said, “the church has become a theatre; a place where people come to amuse themselves, because they don’t know that the church is a war zone, where soldiers of the cross are trained. It’s where the standard of discipleship is raised; where you become an agent for change in a nation. I’m not talking of rascality. I’m not saying let’s go on the streets and be displaying rascality. I’m talking of constructive engagement and constructive dismantling of the oppressive forces over our nation.
“It is not only about praying, but having a head-on collision with them and calling a spade a spade. If that’s the role the church had been playing in Nigeria, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But we’ll rather take them to a side and tell them to come to a particular location once a week or once a month to get special prayer and lay empty hands on empty heads. That’s not Christ, that’s not church.”
Probably concerned that his pulpit advocacy was not yielding the kind of results he expected, Bakare, at the time the nation was heading for the precipice while the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was on the sick bed in Saudi Arabia, started the Save Nigeria Group (SNG).
In an interview, Bakare, speaking on the essence of the SNG, said, “At the time Save Nigeria Group began, it was to address a major and vital issue - the issue of power hijack. Those who were not elected to serve in the office of the presidency of the country were exercising the authority to do what they liked.”
Those close to Bakare say his acceptance of the CPC’s offer is hinged on his belief that he will help Buhari in the implementation of his plans to transform the nation just as the biblical Joseph helped Pharaoh with the translation of his dream into reality.
Be that as it may, it is hardly disputable that Buhari picked Bakare, a man of opposing religious view, principally to remove or cover the tag of an Islamic fundamentalist which he has been associated with over the years. But apart from being the principal’s alter ego, a vice-presidential candidate must also add electoral value to the ticket. That is one area where Bakare is likely going to have a serious challenge.
Bakare’s immediate constituency is the church, but how many church leaders will openly campaign for his candidature? The truth is that not many will probably do so. People vote for those they are comfortable with and it is doubtful if many pastors are comfortable with Bakare.
Will Bishop David Oyedepo tell his congregation to vote for Bakare’s party? Will Pastor Enoch Adeboye direct the mammoth crowd that monthly gathers at the Redemption Camp to support Bakare and Buhari? Will Reverend Felix Meduoye of the Foursquare Gospel Church instruct his members to vote for Bakare? Will the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) or the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) even subtly campaign for him?
History has shown that advocacy and governance don’t usually find convergence in a person. While Bakare has made a mark in advocacy, it is doubtful if he will be so successful in politics. That is why Chief Gani Fawehinmi, despite his long years of advocacy, did not really succeed as a politician. That is why Wole Soyinka’s party will just remain a participant in the political process without winning any election.
Pastor Bakare’s foray into politics may not produce a result different from his forbears’ in advocacy. Source