It is a powerful sermon, particularly towards the end. He seems to infer that this is GOD's will. I find all of this very, very confusing. Well sha, Like I said, GOD knows.
Find below article to which he was referring :
Source:
Run Bakare, run by
Dimgba Igwe
Wanted: a powerful candidate to give President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, a good fight at the general election in April. Enter my colleague, Dele Momodu, public intellectual, Dr. Pat Utomi, Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, former EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu and former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Each of the above candidates parade requisite credentials for good leadership. Momodu and Utomi are running on intellectual platform which usually in Nigerian context, hardly ever translate into votes. Their chances are as limited as the limited resources and structures at their disposals. One day, Nigeria would mature into politics of ideas but until then, we can only thank Utomi and Momodu for their courage to dare at least.
Shekarau is coming into the race with a background of two successful tenures as governor of volatile Kano State who rode on the crest of religious-cum-populist bubble to become governor in a fairy-tale manner that may be difficult to replicate in a highly polarized and heterogeneous national platform. With captive support in Kano State and expected reasonable impact in some part of North West, he certainly has a spoiler’s chance in a limited territory. Such men are dangerous, but they are no national competition.
Ribadu is waving his highly controversial anti-corruption achievements and truly, for a nation so deeply mired in the cesspit of corruption, this would have amounted to much, but he also carries with him, the political incubus of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s desecration of the anti-corruption agency under Ribadu’s watch for selfish political goals, including the third term gambit.
Enter the ascetic former head of state, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, perhaps one of Nigeria’s most incorruptible leaders. He had been oil minister, head of state and head of the Petroleum Trust Fund that used petroleum revenue to develop various sectors of the nation, but without enriching himself. On account of his moral probity, despite his harsh record of human rights abuses as a head of state, Nigerians have come to respect as well fear him. He is respected for his moral integrity and feared by Christians who think he is an Islamic fanatic who may turn out to be a Taliban! It was after all under his watch that Nigeria commenced romance with the controversial Organisation of Islamic Countries, (OIC), a romance that was consummated to a limited but controversial degree under the presidency of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. Since then, many Christian electorates had feared Buhari’s presumed potential to islamise Nigeria far more than they respected his incorruptible personality.
Twice Buhari ran for presidency and twice he lost, even when he insisted that he actually won. Many who rode on his name to power as governors under ANPP soon dumped him to cut survival deals with ruling PDP and in turn, his party repudiated his court battles at electoral tribunals. But unlike the typical politicians who cut deals to survive, Buhari had remained faithful to his uncompromising principles, a fact that had endeared him to the masses of the north, making him today potentially the most popular political figure in the north. Students of branding have a good subject in Buhari on how to grow a personal political brand without spending a kobo. In a nation where politics is a game of money—at times, running into billions—Buhari and his followers barely scratch by to pay their most basic bills.
But the absence of money to spend has not diminished Buhari’s brand; if anything, it has enhanced his connection with the masses, making him extremely popular. It is said that Buhari is the only man capable of pulling a million-man crowd in many northern cities without spending money on publicity.
This type of profile makes Buhari a candidate to beat in the north and therefore, President Goodluck Jonathan’s stiffest opponent in the north. The snag however, for Buhari is how to translate his popularity in the north to the south. This has been tough because of Buhari’s perception as an Islamic fanatic. For him to pick a southern candidate, Buhari not only needed a Christian, but a credible one at that who commands respect of the people. On this score, many of the popular politicians just didn’t make the scratch.
Enter fiery and iconoclastic preacher, Pastor Tunde Bakare, general overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly and also the convener of Save Nigeria Group, (SNG). Report in The Guardian of Thursday states that Bakare was being persuaded to become Buhari’s running mate for the April presidential election. Unfortunately, Pastor Bakare has been dragging his feet. One, he didn’t want to run for political office. Nonsense. Here was Bakare preaching to few thousands and God says it was time to preach by words and action to 150 million audience and he is dithering and developing sentimental qualms? Second, Bakare didn’t want it to look as if the reason he formed SNG was really as a political platform to sell himself for political office. Well, then, Bakare, a lawyer, ought to show me any section of the Bible and the Nigerian constitution that says that if you form a non-partisan association that exposed your leadership gifts to the world, you should not offer yourself to serve the people if they so desired. Imagine what would have happened if Joseph had told Pharaoh that he would not serve as prime minister in Egypt because people would think that was why he was dreaming and interpreting dreams! Or what God would have thought of Daniel if he had declined public office in Babylon simply so that nobody would consider him opportunistic!
The question is: why do I want Bakare to run as Buhari’s running mate? First, it has to do with Bakare’s eminent qualification for the position. His profile fits that of Buhari like a pair of gloves. As a former Moslem, he would best understand the mindset of a typical ascetic Moslem like Buhari and how best to deal with him. Bakare is extremely bold and well able to speak his mind to powers that be, and that is, to speak the truth as he perceives it—a simple virtue that is in acute shortage in the corridors of power in Nigeria, giving lily-livered sycophants a field day. As a lawyer groomed in the chambers of both the fiery radical, Gani Fawehinmi and the arch conservative Chief Rotimi Williams, both now late, nobody would be able to pool the wool over his eyes. As a pastor, a minister of righteousness, he would not go into public office to amass wealth.
In terms of leadership by example, where the president and the vice president are not soiling their hands with corruption, God helps anybody in their administration who would steal public funds. Buhari had proved his mettle from different public office positions that he would not enrich himself from public fund, neither would he be afraid to take bold decisions, including firing or jailing corrupt leaders. If his natural ascetic lifestyle made that unnecessary in his younger days, it would be crazy to think he would do otherwise in his old age. In other words, his character is no longer forming, it is already set and unchangeable. This would be dangerous for those of us in the media since Buhari patently seems to dislike media freedom, but then we would give him the fight of his life on that, trust us.
The corruption challenge is on Bakare. In other words, wouldn’t the lure of office corrupt Bakare as many before him had fallen under the spell of corruption? Well, Bakare was a successful lawyer before he came into the ministry. He passed through the tutelage of the Pentecostal fundamentalist, Pastor Kumuyi of Deeper Life Bible Church and Pastor E. A. Adeboye of Redeemed Christian Church before he founded his ministry, Latter Rain Assembly.
He had refused to join the prosperity bandwagon; preferring to play the role of an Old Testament prophet who had been the scourge of fellow Christian leaders whom he accused of sundry offences including cultivating personality cult around themselves, doctrinal deviations and diverting into building human monuments rather than focusing on the core purposes of the church. Meaning that his passion is not amassing wealth and it would be unbelievable human tragedy if he changes now. Men who had definite purpose in life are not likely to be swayed by material circumstances as much as those who are merely opportunistic and lack definite purpose or spiritual anchors.
If the Buhari-Bakare ticket happens, it would be the pairing of two strong personalities who would certainly give the Jonathan-Sambo-Incumbency ticket a run for their money at the polls. Win or lose, their candidacy would enhance the profile of the election from a potential walkover for Jonathan to a real contest where the winner would be somebody that would pass through the crucible to offer real values to the electorate.
At the PDP convention, we saw a coronation of Jonathan, not a real contest, and this was all down to the power of incumbency. But Jonathan’s possible victory at the polls is not the problem; the absence of keen competition would be the problem that would undermine the credibility of the election. We must grow beyond “se-election” to real electoral contest; that is the only way to extract accountability from public office holders. They must sweat to get into power and be threatened with sack if they didn’t perform.
If anybody asked my opinion on whether Bakare should accept to become Buhari’s running mate or not, I would borrow a prophetic trumpet and mount on the rooftop and blow: Run Bakare, Run…
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