Ime Akpan
The founder of Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare has taken a swipe at the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, describing the quality of leadership in the country as “repugnant” and calling on citizens to declare a state of emergency on governance.
He made the declaration yesterday in his Easter Sunday state-of-the-nation message entitled ‘Let the people know the truth and the country is safe.’
He said recent happenings in the country show that those responsible for steering the ship of state lack the humility and character the moment demands of them.
He pointed fingers at the executive and the legislature as the “two main contenders in the ongoing institutional immorality Olympics.”
“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 Ahmed Tinubu. 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.
Bakare said there had been a descent into tyranny and the brazen abuse of power since the beginning of the year.
“Those entrusted with power appear determined to destabilise what is left of our political institutions and have committed themselves to obliterating the guardrails of constitutional governance.
“From the theatre of the absurd staged in Rivers State, with puppets on strings controlled by directors in Abuja, to the dance of shame performed by the National Assembly in their rush to suspend the constitution and endorse, through the backdoor, the usurpation of powers by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; from the Senate’s shameless bid to silence Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for demanding that the President of the Nigerian Senate uphold the moral standards required of that office, to the uncouth outbursts of an undistinguished senatorial misfit who tried in vain to silence the distinguished citizens attempting to testify on behalf of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, it is clear that our so-called leaders are determined to turn Nigeria into a mafia state,” he said
He further said with Tinubu’s politics of “state capture,” the institution of legislative oversight “is collapsing and our democracy is faced with an existential threat” adding that “Nigeria is too delicate for this kind of politics.”
“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.
“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,” he said.
Bakare said recent events are indications that had the current national assembly been in place in 2006 “our democracy would have since morphed into one of Africa’s lamentable tales of sit-tight dictatorship.”
“In 2006, the 4th national assembly had the audacity to reject the tenure extension bid of a sitting president.9
“In 2010, the 6th national assembly summoned the courage to stand against a power- hijacking cabal and restore Nigeria to the path of constitutionality by invoking the Doctrine of Necessity.
“In 2011, the house of representatives of the 7th national assembly had the courage to elect its leaders, as did the senate of the 8th national assembly in 2015, defying executive interference.
While urging the president to “please, stop playing God” Bakare also reminded him to reflect on the fact that “no man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.”
“From its approach to governance right from its first day in office, the current administration, though in its first term, seems to have drifted in the sea of hubris, in the process steering the polity adrift and struggling to stabilise it.
“Since justice, equity, and good governance are the foundations for national prosperity, and because injustice can frustrate any economic agenda, it is time for this government to embrace humility and govern with a sense of justice and fairness before it is too late,” Bakare declared.
