It will be good for Buhari to influence who succeeds him in 2023 —Bakare

The General Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Sunday urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to leave the choice of who succeeds him in 2023 to chance.

Bakare, who was the President’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election, said in a special broadcast in his church, it was important for Buhari to influence his successor in 2023 so that his legacies would not be rubbished.

The pastor said: “God is into succession. Anyone in government that does not concern himself about succession is destroying his own legacy because the person coming after you can just mess up everything.

“Let us ask God for grace of accurate succession; that he (Buhari) will not hand over the baton of government and governance to thieves and perverts, to corrupt and power-drunk individuals, but those who are true patriots, who will serve like our founding fathers served; though not perfect, they did their best.”

By institutionalising a system of succession, the Latter Rain General Overseer said Buhari would join the league of strong leaders like the late Deng Xiaoping of China; the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa; and Goh Chok Tong of Singapore.

He added: “As the government of President Muhammadu Buhari ushers us into the second decade of the 21st century, the third pivotal objective of governance should be to build a strong post-Buhari legacy facilitated by accurate succession.

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“In this regard, Nigeria must learn from some of the best succession examples in recent history. Of note is the legacy of Deng Xiaoping, a second-generation Chinese leader who laid the foundation for today’s China. Xiaoping flagged off the ‘Four Modernizations’ xxiii programme, which searched around the country for leaders who, in his words, were ‘revolutionary, younger, more knowledgeable, and more specialised’.

“In three decades, that programme gave China a succession of leaders who piloted China’s economic transformation, including the current president, Xi Jinping. Without their foresight, we would not be running to China today to finance our shortsightedness.

“We must also learn from Nelson Mandela who stepped aside after one term, but not without positioning the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. We must learn from the success story of Singapore, whose former Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, once said, ‘Mr Lee Kuan Yew has always emphasised political succession, and when I took over, likewise, I planned for succession…Prime Minister Lee is also working very hard to plan for succession’.

“Therefore, even as we build institutions of democratic governance, a key responsibility that history has bestowed on President Muhammadu Buhari at this turning point in our journey to nationhood is to institutionalise systems of accurate succession that will build and sustain the Nigeria we desire. This is a task that must be done.”

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