Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, on Sunday called the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu  a dictatorship, saying he warned Nigerians against the “Emilokan” kind of politics of the President.

Speaking during a State of the Nation broadcast at his church in Ikeja, Lagos, Bakare said he warned that ’emilokan’ would breed “imperial presidency”.

During his speech where he talked on many current national issues, the cleric said, “I’m reminded of the warning that I sounded to Nigerians in January 2023 in my address titled, ‘Bridging the gap between politics and governance.

“I warned that the politics of entitlement; the ’emilokan’ type of politics would breed an imperial presidency, one that would slide towards dictatorship and would be intolerant of dissent.”

He also warned the Federal Government against making the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele a scapegoat over how he handled the country’s monetary policy.

According to him, Emefiele couldn’t have acted without presidential authorization.

“Mr Godwin Emefiele may have made the wrong judgement calls in the management of Nigeria’s monetary policy, but he must not be made a scapegoat.

“In the provisions of the central bank of Nigeria, CBN Act 2007, there is every possibility that the erstwhile central bank governor did not act without presidential authorization.

“If Emefiele is found liable for any crime, by all means he should be prosecuted. However, considering the dynamics of the pre-election environment and the then candidate Bola Tinubu’s public allegation that the naira redesign policy was targeted at him, the optics of the president targeting Emefiele for prosecution after winning the election and being sworn in as the president could be interpreted as a form of vendetta far beneath such a distinguished office,” Bakare said.

On the issue of corruption and palliatives to cushion the agony in the country, he urged Tinubu to fight corruption that has bedevilled the nation’s economy.

“Mr President, even though you have announced some palliatives, let me remind you that palliatives cannot address the root cause of the problem.

“Therefore, we demand that you address the root cause of the problem. Take the yoke off the neck of the poor, go after the loot, recover the loot, and retool it to the benefit of Nigerians. In simple terms, Mr President, kill corruption, not Nigerians.”

However, in his reaction, the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, questioned Bakare’s competence to criticise such economic decisions by the President.

“I must quickly comment on what Pastor Bakare said, although I don’t see him as a politician and, with respect to him, I don’t see him as even competent to say what he has said.

“The fact that you are talking of palliatives does not mean that we’re not confronting the headlong of correcting the dysfunctions and imbalances in the economy. So, we’re both addressing the issue of palliative as an immediate step and addressing the fundamental problem.”