Pastor Tunde Bakare
The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said he will never call the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his president.
Bakare contested against Tinubu and others in the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential primaries.
Pastor Bakare during a webinar on Saturday, claimed there were series of malpractices during the 2023 elections, and alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission made a mess of the electioneering process.
He said this while responding during a Question & Answer session after delivering his speech on the Zoom programme titled ‘Building the New Nigeria: The Role of the Diaspora’ organised by the PTB4Nigeria In Diaspora Group.
Bakare who mutates between the pulpit and political podium said the 2023 elections were below acceptable standards.
He said he has had a cordial relationship with outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “Last Wednesday, I was at the Glass House where he (President Buhari) has been restricted now because the main house is being renovated. I said I have done that for you. I want you to know that, because of the circumstances of your flying into power on the wings of integrity and incorruptibility, but you’re now passing onto someone who does not have that value.
He said that at “any public lecture anywhere, before this mess is cleared off, I will address Asiwaju (Tinubu) as a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I will never call him my president.”
He said he didn’t participate in the elections, and therefore, no one could say he lost.
“I participated in the primary, and there were hundreds (of persons) who participated only by stepping down, so there is no shame in what we have done. We spoke truth to power within seven minutes.
“I wasn’t there when they voted, I wasn’t there when they scored (me) zero, but we won that badge of zero and badge of honour, he told the audience.
Answering the question, he said if he was called to be a minister under the incoming government, there would be conditions to it, “but I am not desperate to be a minister, not at all. I was offered before but I turned it down. My life is not just to take photographs with the president and shake hands.”
