Niger: Tinubu putting W’Africa in dangerous situation, says Bakare

Forum 8 months ago

Niger: Tinubu putting W’Africa in dangerous situation, says Bakare

The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, says President Bola Tinubu is leading the Economic Community of West African States by impulse regarding the intervention of the regional body in Niger Republic, where military men recently overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.

Bakare, during a State of the Nation Broadcast at his church at 30, Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, said deploying the military to intervene in the coup in the sahel country was like putting the cart before the horse and putting the West African sub-region in a “precarious” situation.

The cleric said, “This same impulsive leadership style was clearly evident when the president recently led the Economic Community of West African States to violate an ancient principle of diplomacy that is recognised even in the Holy Book that you must offer peace before declaring war. By placing military invasion on the table from the very start before subsequently exploring diplomatic options with the coup plotters in the Republic of Niger, President Tinubu once again put the cart before the horse, thus placing Nigeria and the sub-region in a precarious situation.”

Bakare said the spike in coups in African countries in recent times spoke to the need for good governance.

“While we condemn the spate of coups in West Africa, we recognise that the situation calls for deep introspection on the part of African leaders and makes even more urgent the case for good governance,” he said.

He added that the call upon Nigeria at this time was to compel alignment through exemplary governance.

On fuel subsidy removal, Bakare said Nigerians wanted answers to several questions regarding the economy and alleged corruption in the oil sector.

The cleric and politician said investigations he was privy to revealed that trillions of naira saved from fuel subsidy removal remained unaccounted.

He said, “I expect that President Tinubu has been well briefed on these investigations conducted over the years as well as individuals, agencies and corporate entities indicted. I sincerely hope that the President is poised to take the needed action because whether he likes it or not, the honeymoon is over and Nigerians are asking questions. Nigerians are not asking whether these alarming cases of corruption occurred during his administration or not. Nigerians are not waiting for President Tinubu to get his act together, through trial and error. Nigerians are asking why the poor have to suffer for the criminal activities of these individuals and companies that are well known.”

Bakare, therefore, asked the President to go after looters in the oil sector.

“Take the yoke off the neck of the poor, go after the looters, recover the loot, and retool it to the benefit of Nigerians. In simple terms, Mr President, kill corruption, not Nigerians,” Bakare said.

But the National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, knocked Bakare, saying he lacks the competence to speak on Tinubu’s reforms, especially in the wake of the controversial fuel subsidy removal.

Basiru, who featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday night, said, “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 being competent to say what he has said.

“The fact that we are talking of palliatives does not mean we are not talking about the dysfunctions, imbalances in the economy and addressing the fundamental problems. We are not limiting our problems to the issue of palliatives.”