Easter Message: Nigeria Needs Joseph-Type Visionaries, Not “Motor‑Park Politics.” Pastor Tunde Bakare To Tinubu (Full Sermon Inside)
Former presidential aspirant and presiding overseer of the Lagos-based Global Community Citadel Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has warned that under President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria risks a popular uprising unless the administration changes course on security and the economy.
Addressing worshippers during his Easter State-of-the-Nation broadcast in Ikeja, the former APC presidential aspirant said the country is being driven toward the brink amid a fresh wave of killings in Plateau, Benue and Enugu.
He argued that Nigeria demands Joseph-type visionaries, not “motor‑park politics.”
Bakare said, “Fellow citizens, at the centre of this political banditry, is the motor park brand of politics nurtured by the old brigade politicians and, in recent times, by President Bola Tinubu.
“Those responsible for steering the course of our nation lack the humility and character this moment demands…What we have seen since the beginning of the year is a descent into tyranny and the brazen abuse of power.”
Bakare, who ran against Tinubu for the APC ticket in 2022, said the economic pain unleashed by fuel‑subsidy removal, naira devaluation and runaway inflation is pushing citizens to the brink.
Bakare cited a July 2024 report by the Financial Times, which accused the President of allowing the naira to enter free-fall, “fuelling imported inflation and triggering the worst cost of living crisis in a generation…These measures have pushed tens of millions of already impoverished people deeper into misery.”
Despite headline inflation easing to 23.18 per cent in February after hitting a 28-year peak in 2024, food prices remained relatively high. Once N460/$ before the unification of the exchange rate, the naira now hovers near N1,500. More so, forex scarcity and eroded margins have led to the recent exit of corporates from Diageo to Unilever from the Nigerian market.
In the latter months of 2024, food‑price spikes triggered fatal stampedes as crowds flooded charity events to claim food items such as rice, while the World Bank estimates that more than one million Nigerians fell into “severe food insecurity” in the past 12 months.
“The stampede deaths in several cities at the end of 2024 were the most horrific climax to the economic hardships experienced by Nigerians.
“The heartbreaking reports of parents throwing their children over a fence in Ibadan to ensure access to charity food distribution, leading to the deaths of over 35 children, were tragically almost reminiscent of the biblical famine in Samaria during which parents resorted to eating their children for survival,” the Pastor affirmed.
Since the beginning of April, more than 120 locals have been shot, hacked or burned to death in Plateau State alone, according to Amnesty International and multiple eyewitness accounts. Relief agencies say the toll is higher, citing coordinated night raids on Bokkos and Bassa that left burnt homes and 3,000 displaced. In Benue, at least 56 people were killed in Logo and Gbagir after twin assaults blamed on armed herders.
Bakare cited a July 2024 report by the Financial Times, which accused the President of allowing the naira to enter free-fall, “fuelling imported inflation and triggering the worst cost of living crisis in a generation…These measures have pushed tens of millions of already impoverished people deeper into misery.”
The clergyman, who participated in the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests, said there is little patience left in the streets as the economic situation could trigger a people-led revolt if unchecked.
“People of faith have prayed to the point of weariness, and any call for prayer now appears to be a mere religious ritual.
“Some have concluded that we have prayed long enough and that unless certain pragmatic steps are taken with immediate effect, the rage of the poor may engineer social, economic, and political worst-case scenarios,” he argued.
He accused Tinubu of reducing the National Assembly to “a haven for legislative rascality” and the 48th member of his cabinet.
“Through its actions and inactions, the National Assembly has, in effect, become the 48th member of the President’s cabinet, while a cabinet minister has, more or less, become a third-term state governor in Rivers State, pampered by the indulgences of the President.
Mr. President, it is through your influence that the Nigerian National Assembly has become a haven for legislative rascality. Mr. President, it is under your watch that the National Assembly has become an extension of the executive, grossly violating the principles of separation of powers and rubber-stamping the whims and caprices of your office, all while singing the international anthem of sycophants: “On your mandate, we shall stand.”
“Mr. President, thanks to your political machinations, Nigeria is now bedevilled by a captured National Assembly, the most ineffective in its checks-and-balances role since the start of the Fourth Republic. This National Assembly, the Tenth, has by its unconstitutional endorsement of the President’s abuse of powers proven to be the most spineless in our recent history,” he argued.
Bakare urged Tinubu to sack under‑performing aides and appoint persons of impeccable integrity…reputed for transparency and accountability.
He outlined his five-point plan, which includes creating a Consolidated Value Investment and Development Fund to mobilise diaspora capital and repatriated loot; launching a Reform Amelioration Incentive Scheme to cushion the poor; restructuring security into local, state, and zonal forces; empowering a nonpartisan Directorate of National Intelligence; and “heal and unite the nation” through justice and reconciliation.
“No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power,” he told the President.
Bakare added, “Please, stop playing God! Nigeria is too delicate for this kind of politics.”
However, Bakare acknowledged some positive developments under Tinubu. He cited the increase in Nigeria’s foreign reserves from $35bn in May 2023 to $40bn by November 2024. He warned that these achievements should not overshadow the broader challenges facing the country.
Reacting to Bakare’s comments, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Rivers State Sole Administrator, Hector Igbikiowubo, said it was unfortunate that Bakare was using the period of Easter to sow discord.
He further said the Ibas-led administration would not dignify what he described as “vituperations” from Bakare with a response, saying such remarks neither added value to the discuss nor helped the peace-building process in Rivers State.
He stated, “The administration run by Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.) is focused and delivering on the mandate he has been given.
“Rivers State is going through trying times and we won’t be distracted by the commentary albeit the vituperations of people who want two minutes of fame.
“I don’t know this pastor, seriously speaking. And the Rivers State Government will not dignify his vituperations with a response.”
He added, “I sincerely do not know him. You said he used to be a vice presidential candidate. So, obviously he didn’t win whatever platform he ran on. Nigeria is a country of over 230 million people. We have almost half of that number of faces. So, we have thousands of preachers.”
He added, “If someone leaves the message he should be delivering to the Christian faithful in this season of peace and tranquility, rather than preach peace and the need to heal or the need to come together and he is preaching distraction or trying to make himself the issue, we can’t help but ignore.
“How has he contributed to the peace building efforts in Rivers State with his commentary? Would he rather have the roof come down on all of our heads in Rivers State?
“Whatever affects Rivers State affects the country. Whatever affects the nose affects the eyes. What affects the eyes affects the ears. Rivers State occupies a very critical space in Nigeria’s body polity.
“So, the easiest thing to do is to sit on the fence and grandstand and pass commentary that adds no value. I urge the likes of Tunde Bakare and the people around him, people who should be influencing Christian faithful properly, to note that the Easter season presents all of us an opportunity, especially those who occupy the pulpit and positions of authority to preach peace, peaceful co-habitation amongst all.
“Now rather than do that he has seized the opportunity to sow the seeds of discord and to foment trouble. I sincerely hope that others will see this as a learning call and seize the opportunities as they may arise tomorrow to help initiate peace-building efforts.
“Tunde Bakare has not helped in this instance and I will not dignify his commentary with anything other than pointing this out.”
