I’ll Expose Pastors Who Took Money To Influence Elections –Bakare Convener, Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare is the Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly (LRA). In this interview with journalists in Lagos, he speaks on the state of the nation, his fears over the general elections, threatening to expose his colleagues who he said were bribed to influence previous elections, and other issues. Senior Correspondent, TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI was there. With few weeks to the general elections, it seems the government has not really put in place necessary structures for free and fair elections. With the way things are going, are you satisfied with what you have seen so far? It is my very strong desire that God will give our leaders, not only hearing ears, but understanding heart to know that a good helmsman, like a good pilot, does not ignore the weather forecast, especially when they say it is going to be tempestuous and cause destruction. Going ahead regardless, is like saying ‘I don’t care’. I have clearly painted a picture of where we are and it is only wisdom that we must camp at Fair Havens according to Acts 27. We need to camp there and not sail to Crete because Euroclydon will come and hit. Disaster is ahead of us either way. Those in the North inflicting so much pain on our nation via Boko Haram do not have monopoly of violence any longer. And if you hear threats coming from both sides, if a Northerner appears and wins the election, the South South, whether he has won the election fair, square or not could allege rigging. If Jonathan wins the election fair and square, they will allege the power of incumbency that the election has been rigged. The weather is not conducive for another election in 2015 in February for that matter. And I have quoted the right portion of the constitution that empowers both the president and the National Assembly for a six-months extension, provided it is not just to stay in power to elongate tenure, but to be working critically to ensure that these things are put in place before we go to elections. That is my considered opinion and I believe that I have the spirit of God. You talked about having a transition government. Do you think that is feasible in modern day Nigeria? I have spelt it loud and clear in the state of the nation address that the transition government is a national government, but still headed by President Jonathan because his time is still on. He cannot create a vacuum and he cannot say ‘I step aside’. It is not going to augur well for the nation. He has started with the 2014 National Conference. All these things that we are talking about have already been worked upon. It is a matter of fleshing it up and within a period of two years or less, they can be accomplished and the constitution is conducive to that if there is war. Those who say insurgency is not war is mere semantics. If your own daughter or son has been taken captive, none of those who are saying ‘ if we win election, we will find solution to it will stay in their beds’. They would have been looking for that solution. I do not see any patriotism in going to wreak our nation and this country is bigger than any person. None of them can hold us to ransom and say ‘We must go through this disaster at all cost’. If we have to do what we have to do to get to where we need to get to, we must do it now. Looking at the general elections, some analysts have postulated that if President Jonathan wins, there is going to be a deadly dimension of Boko Haram in the North, if Buhari wins, the militants will resume hostilities. Don’t you think we are at a crossroads here? We existed before this crisis and we will exist after this crisis. Nigeria will survive. If we put things in place that people see justice, fair play and the purpose of government becomes the welfare of the people and they are seeing the things that will augur well for our peaceful coexistence in a federal structure, all those things will take care of itself because if there is fiscal federalism today, I am not depending on your resources anymore. I am working on my own, while you are working on yours. In 2014, National Conference, we asked that a tangible national portion of our national resources be dedicated to the development of all the natural resources of the country. There is no part of this nation that is not endowed but we are dependent on one of those natural resources, which is mainly, oil and we have depleted everything. That is crashing already anyway with the price that is falling. So, it is about time to sit down and say ‘lets go to the table of brotherhood’. All these things that we got without any division, no voting are already raw materials to effect the necessary change. I do not like change as a slogan. I do not like change that has no substance. I will like to see that constructive change. If I say ‘I am a changed person, a born-again, but you find me still doing the things that I was doing before, then my dog has returned to its vomit. In the past, with military alacrity, I am not calling for military intervention, but we need such urgency at this time to critically deal with what we are faced with. You can’t use the cure for ringworm to cure leprosy. If every part of the country see that we are going to be free at last, we are going to develop at our own pace, we are going to do whatever we are going to do with our own resources and contribute our quota to the centre, all those things will die down. The firsts are recorded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo – first television station in Africa, first stadium in Africa, they were done from Cocoa and with a lot of prudence to manage resources. The ground has not stopped producing, but we have stopped developing each other parts of the country and other resources and have focused on oil. Now, the people who owns the oil are saying ‘we are tired of being slaves in our territory anymore, let us fight to finish’. Why fight to finish if every other region can go at its pace? True federalism will fix that. The military did a major damage to the Nigerian federalism and put everything at the centre and we are yet to recover from it. But, the National Conference has fixed that. We need to go back to that place and say this is one of those that will end up in PIB cabinet. With that, they see demonstration of goodwill, with every part of the country involved, not just one section of the country in the reengineering of our nation. You once said the church was seriously bias during the conduct of the 2011 general elections and you promised to name some pastors that received financial inducements if you were put on the spot. Can you please name those clerics now? In 2011, when I was selected by General Buhari as running mate, there was a gang-up against that ticket by a substantial section of the church, which preferred the candidate that was perceived as Christian, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Not only was the church not convinced about General Buhari’s non-fundamentalist stance, it also refused to give support to the running mate who, in its perception, is controversial and non-conformist. At that time, the mantra among many men of God was that a pastor had nothing to do with politics. Reports also have it that Christian clergy received financial inducement from their preferred candidate who is again contesting against the same General Buhari in 2015. When I said I will name them except I am put on the spot, I am not talking about the journalists putting me on the spot, but security forces. And so, if you do not belong to the DSS, I plead the 5th amendment, though I am not operating the American constitution. At the appropriate time, I will mention to you names of pastors who received money given to Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for them to mobilise their people. So, it is mobilisation fee. One of them, his church is not far from here, somewhere on Acme Road. There are many churches on Acme Road. So, you won’t know the one I am talking about. What would you say about the current state of the Nigerian nation today? Today, Nigeria is supposedly the largest economy in Africa, surpassing South Africa and Egypt with a GDP of $522 billion, a value obtained since the rebasing of the economy in April 2014. With this nominal GDP, Nigeria is now the 26th largest economy in the world. It would appear, then, that her aspiration to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 is within reach. However, whenever the GDP figures are brandished by the government as signs of achievement, red flags start emerging as the people look around them and wonder if GDP stands for garri don peme because even staple foods are becoming unaffordable to the so-called ordinary Nigerian. In any case, we need not go into those socio-economic realities that challenge the bogus claims of economic growth. Let us simply dwell in the realm of economic statistics with which experts have often attempted to blind the eyes of Nigerians. According to the National Bureau of Statistics as well as Trading Economics, a resource centre for economic indicators for countries the world over, including Nigeria, there was a decline in average GDP growth rate between the third quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2014 with growth declining to an average rate of 4.5 per cent within that period compared to earlier rates as well as a 2014 rate of six per cent. Were these not signs of a staggering economy; signs that were strongly denied by the government until recently when the fact could no longer be hidden following the fall in oil prices? One also wonders if this decline was not the pointer to the fact that the economy could no longer sustain the massive corruption in the fuel subsidy regime which then informed the attempted subsidy removal and the increase in fuel price in January 2012, a policy which the people protested, defying intimidation until the protests were crushed by a combined force of political intrigues, economic sell-outs and military deployment with no action taken against the major culprits in the subsidy fraud. Also, one wonders if, despite all the acclaimed benefits of the rebasing exercise, it was not mere recourse to plastic surgery as an attempted solution to an internal disease in a last-minute effort to window-dress the economy and attract investments rather than address the problems fundamentally, considering the fact that it was done in the first quarter of 2014. The gap between the bogus GDP claims and the economic realities of Nigerians is seen in the fact that Nigeria, according to the World Bank, has one of the lowest GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world at the 123rd position out of 185 countries, thus revealing that the value of our currency as an import-dependent economy, makes our GDP claims of little worth. Worse still, the level of inequality in the distribution of wealth that shows that a select few have cornered the wealth of the nation is seen in a Gini coefficient of 43.8 which is one of the highest inequality indicators in the world according to World Bank statistics. To explain to Nigerians what this means, the Leadership newspaper of March 1, 2014 revealed that in a population of about 170 million people, only about 12 Nigerians control one-eighth of the entire Nigerian economy. What are some of the fundamental flaws that needs to be addressed for Nigeria to conduct a successful general elections? The journey of the ship of the Nigerian state has been difficult and we have largely been drifting under the influence of the winds. It is clear that a great storm lies ahead as we are approaching elections without addressing the fundamental flaws in the polity. These flaws include: the awkward geopolitical structure that has the form, but lacks the substance, of federalism; the consequent lopsided economic structure in which a single product from one region of the country contributes the bulk of the revenue of the entire nation despite the abundant resources spread across the nation; a constitution that lays claim to the phrase “We the people”, but to which the people made no input; contentious population figures that have been the harbinger of election disputes since the pre-independence era; and an electoral body that wears the label ‘independent’, but is practically under the control of the Presidency. What steps swill you suggest the government take to avoid the gathering storm, which you have predicted? To avoid the gathering storms, the following steps should be taken. Activate the constitutional provisions for the suspension of elections. Section 135(3) of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows: If the Federation is at war in which the territory of Nigeria is physically involved and the President considers that it is not practicable to hold elections, the National Assembly may by resolution extend the period of four years mentioned in sub-section (2) of this section from time to time; but no such extension shall exceed a period of six months at any one time. The argument against this would be the notion that the country is not at war. If indeed the country is not at war, how can one explain the invasion and annexation of Nigerian territory by insurgents launching attacks from our borders and neighbouring countries? Let us not forget that on May 14, 2013, while declaring a state of emergency in three states, President Goodluck Jonathan said of the activities of terrorists: “These actions amount to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten its territorial integrity. As a responsible government, we will not tolerate this”. Records indicate that since that declaration, the situation has only worsened. Therefore, if the country was at war then, according to the president, it is even more so now. I do recognise the fact that opinions are divided on whether or not the Boko Haram plague can be described as war or just an act of insurgency. Truth be told, this is mere semantics. As Aesop said, “the injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales”. Depending on which side of the divide one belongs, the difference between war and insurgency can be likened to the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, just as one man’s music is another man’s noise. Those that are condemned as ‘terrorists’ by one group are hailed as ‘freedom fighters’ by another. Therefore, I submit that if the President considers that a part of the federation will be disenfranschised by reason of the Boko Haram plague, a postponement of the election may not be out of place. In my view, the litmus test to arrive at the type of war contemplated by the constitution is the practicality of getting people in the affected states to line up to vote for candidates of their choice in situations where they cannot predict when the next attack will be launched by insurgents. I hold the view that the drafters of the law feared for mass disenfranchisement of Nigerians who will refuse to risk their lives, hence the requirement that the nation wins the war before conducting an election. Be that as it may, there is yet another argument. It goes thus: “Since the government has demonstrated a very high degree of incompetence as far as combating terrorism, is it not better to have a replacement, particularly in terms of a new government led by the person of the APC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, which can only happen through elections?” This reasoning seems valid, for though the president has made several attempts at tackling the issue, his avowed political will has not yielded fruit and the situation has only worsened. It is perhaps too complicated for him to deal with. But, what is the guarantee that there will be free, fair and credible elections and the opposition will not be rigged out of victory once again? What is the guarantee that the power of incumbency will not successfully manipulate the presidential elections? Even if General Buhari wins, what would happen if, in response to a Buhari victory, another wave of insurgency explodes in the South-South in such proportion that will completely ground the Nigerian economy? Is that what we want as a nation? However, I must state that the proposal for suspension of elections is not with a view to giving the president an avenue for undue tenure elongation, but for the purpose of building a coalition that will bring lasting solutions to our problem. There is also need to create a Transitional Government. In suspending the elections, to gain the support of all stakeholders, the president must not act with the intention to seek re-election. Rather, he should, within the period, commit himself to building a non-partisan coalition comprised of major stakeholders and competent statesmen from each geopolitical zone. This coalition, headed by the president, will constitute a combined force that will tackle terrorism and address what I have earlier referred to as the fundamentals, within a time frame of two years or less. Daily Independent.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 23:17:34 +0000
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