Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Citadel Global Community Church has said that every part of Nigeria will have a sense of belonging should he become president in 2023.
The cleric stated this yesterday during a virtual meeting tagged ‘Unveiling Project 16 to Nigerians in Diaspora’ held under the theme ‘The portrait of a new Nigeria’ and organised by the PTB4Nigeria in Diaspora Group.
Bakare who used the forum to announce his interest in the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said he “has been part of the party since its establishment” adding that he “is the best suitable candidate to address Nigeria’s myriad of problems.”
He said the Pastor Tunde Bakare (PTB) brand “is a rallying point to restore order in the country” stressing that he has a vision of a new Nigeria and he would be playing a leading role as “we approach the Nigeria of our dreams.”
“As we have been meeting together with friends and our leaders in our nation in the past few years, it is looking much more like we will definitely be in the forefront in the battle for the salvation of our nation in 2023.
“If you are asking me which party, it was my privilege to move a motion for the emergence of APC on February 6, 2013. I have never been in any other party apart from that.”
Speaking on his plans if elected as president, the cleric said his administration will make the “New Nigeria” dream a reality.
“The message is simply “A New Nigeria for Every Nigerian.” The sixteenth dispensation will be about making the New Nigeria the reality of every Nigerian. This is what the PTB brand stands for.
“It means that no part of our nation – North, South, East or West – should feel marginalised in Nigeria.
“It means that no matter where you are in the world, the power and wealth of the Nigerian nation will be deployed for your protection and benefit.
“It means that every Nigerian will be proud to say “I am a Nigerian.”
Bakare added that the current challenges facing the country remain an opportunity for the right individuals to take mantle of leadership in the country.
“The factors that have thus far shaped our national trajectory are converging towards a tipping point. I am confident that “the darkest nights produce the brightest stars.
“The worsening challenges that now confront us as a nation on the eve of the sixteenth dispensation are indicators of an opportunity for the emergence of stellar nation-builders at home and in the diaspora. Now is the time and this is the moment for such nation-builders to work towards one objective: the emergence of a New Nigeria.
“Inspired by my childhood dream and in line with my trajectory in bringing together the best of the North and the best of the South, it would be the honour and privilege of my life to facilitate this coalition of nation-builders as we collectively take the sixteenth step or leap towards the Nigeria of our dreams.
On security challenges bedeviling Nigeria, Bakare said armed attacks and kidnapping “will wane if people are engaged in productive activities. Let me say it to you that idle man’s brain is devil’s workshop.”
He added: “Vast majority of our people that are jobless are easily recruited by those plaguing our nation with kidnapping and all kinds of terrorism.
“If we are able to get them engaged, employed and settled in their own environment to become productive, you will soon see that those attacks would wane.
“If we build a strong and formidable military that is strong and well trained, that will be able to tackle external aggression as well as join our police to tackle internal rebellion.
“We will be able to stem the tide of this plague of terrorism, kidnapping and all kinds of producing profit of crime whose means of livelihood has been cut off and who are ready to die.
“But we need to do reorientation and provide special benefits that will calm them down and get them engaged.”
