Buhari has to put on his thinking cap to save Nigeria and his legacy —Pastor Bakare

Founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take stringent steps to ensure that his legacy is not rubbished.

The cleric who stated that he was shocked by happenings around the country right now, said the president and those in places of authority in the country need to put on their thinking cap to remedy the situation.

He spoke during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday morning.

Bakare, a former vice presidential candidate to President Buhari, expressed shock at what he describes as the failure in the present administration.

He said there is “gross failure” in the administration which has turned the once prosperous nation into a shadow of itself.

Bakare who was Buhari’s running mate on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 presidential election, said the country is at the precipice and that many things currently happening in the country have not been envisioned.

Though he was not forthcoming on his presidential ambition for 2023, the fiery lawyer-turned man of God, spoke on a variety of burning issues of national concern.

He lamented, “This is not the Nigeria we envisioned, not only as young people but in recent past. It is as if we are again at the precipice but Nigeria has a way of bouncing back; we are full of hopes that God Almighty will help us.

“We are in a very perplexing situation as a nation. Many things that we didn’t see before are happening now. Even the president himself said so, that nothing worries or bothers him like what is happening in the north-east, especially the banditry and kidnapping,” he said.

Bakare added that he is terribly surprised by the state of the nation considering the role he played in the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power.

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“I am terribly shocked at the way things have turned out considering the role I played in the emergence of the APC to power.

“But hopefully, things will change in the nearest future.

“Surprise will be a good thing for me. I’m not surprised. I’m terribly shocked about the things that are happening. I never envisaged them,” he said.

Asked to assess Buhari’s administration in the past six years, the cleric compared him to a six-year-old child who is still crawling, noting that the country needs “political medicare” to resolve its myriad of problems.

“A six-year-old child that is still crawling has problems. You want to examine or call the doctors to come in or a pediatrician; you say that this child was given birth to six years ago but it is crawling, just moving on its buttocks, not running, not walking, something is wrong.

“If we are going to assess, we need a serious political medicare. There is no problem that is devoid of solutions.

“The Buhari’s administration is a failure; there is a gross failure in the administration, but it is possible to fail forward in order to resolve the country’s problems.

“I like to use my own words. Failure will look, ‘like try again’, you can still do something with it. I once failed an examination in mathematics.

“In 1973, I sat for exam and I got what we called inverted six, which is nine in mathematics but I met a friend of mine, who is late now, Ahmed Abebefe, who was a genius in mathematics in secondary school but his English was terrible. I was very good in English… Yes, there is gross failure, it is apparent to everyone but you can fail forward,” he said.

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