By Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly,
Tunde Bakare, yesterday described President Muhammadu Buhari and his
predecessors, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan,
as colonial masters.
Bakare who was Buhari’s running mate at
the 2007 presidential election, made this submission while delivering a
sermon in his church at Ogba, Lagos and aired on Channels Television.
Bakare who recalled one of his trips to
the United States, said members of a US church where he was invited to
preach were lamenting that they found themselves in the country because
their forefathers were brought as slaves.
The lawyer turned preacher who said he
challenged the congregation that if they got to the US as slaves why
couldn’t they return to their original land?
He said when people leave their country
because they could not fix their problems and searching for solutions
where things are fixed, they remain slaves.
Comparing the situation to the Nigerian
experience, he said Obasanjo who spent billions of naira on power that
could not produce a candle and yet not being questioned by anyone, is a
colonial master.
He then proceeded to list Buhari, Jonathan and Yar’Adua as other colonial masters.
“Obasanjo spent eight years in power,
spent huge sums on power and there is no candle from it. Nobody is
asking him questions over that investment. Obasanjo is a colonial
master. Jonathan is a colonial master. Yar’Adua is a colonial master.
Buhari is a colonial master,” he said.
Taking a further swipe at the current
government and apparently criticising incumbent ministers for
inefficiency, he said neither work nor housing has been seen.
According to him, whereas the apparent
excuse is that there is no money to execute projects, yet the ministers
have continued to earn salaries.
“Work, housing, we have not seen. Is it their fault? There is no money but they are earning salaries,” he wondered.
The preacher then proceeded to state
that until Nigeria is restructured, nothing will work, pointing out that
if former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and others are
talking of restructuring now, it is clear that the time to restructure
the country has come. “Until you restructure, nothing can work. Until
you restructure, you can do nothing. Put the cart before the horse, it
can’t work,” he added.
Bakare who then slammed the North over
its stiff opposition to restructuring, said the region is afraid because
it fears that restructuring will render it bankrupt and desolate.
According to him, unlike the situation
in the past when different regions could feed themselves, states now
depend on Abuja for survival because Nigeria is a mono-product economy.
“Why is the North suddenly afraid of
restructuring? It is because they know that they will suddenly become
desolate and bankrupt,” he further said.
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