Tunde Bakare, the serving overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), says God does not need anyone’s permission to put Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos, in his hall of fame.
Bakare, speaking at the church’s recently unveiled Citadel in Lagos, said Tinubu has fought and won numerous battles for the Yoruba, and without him, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not have won the 2015 and 2019 elections.
The fiery preacher is known to have strong opposing opinions about Tinubu and his management of his sphere of Nigerian politics.
But in his latest message titled “An Idle Man’s Brain Is The Devil’s Workshop,” Bakare likened Tinubu to Jephtaph in the Bible who delivered his people despite the circumstances of his birth.
Before he went on to deliver his treatise defending the ancestry of Tinubu and answering some of the questions raised by some Yoruba elders, Bakare told those who may be against him to carry their stone.
“I have a word for some Yoruba people whose stock in trade is nothing but a rancorous noise characterised by bitterness and resentment about the ancestry of the former two-term governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Bakare said.
“Carry your stone. I have a word for those Yoruba rancorous elements, noisemakers who have not achieved much as Asiwaju Tinubu has achieved, but are always querying and worrying themselves about his ancestry.
“His traducers are quick to tell you, he’s from Iragbiji; that is where Jephthah came from, that is where he came from. As if that will resolve the issues we have today. Hear me loud and clear, knowing the name of Asiwaju’s mother or father or his place of birth cannot put food on the table of the hungry or create jobs for the unemployed.
“Despite his growing up challenges, the dents and the detours of his life, he like Jephthah delivered Lagos state and nearly all the southwest states from the onslaught of the PDP from 1999 to 2007.
“Truth be told, without his cooperation and political dexterity, the APC victory at the polls in 2015 and 2019 would have been impossible.”
Bakare said he is not Tinubu’s brand manager, but all he knows is that “just as every saint has a past, every sinner has a future, and the best of men are still men at the very best.”
“Those who are envious of him and those who desire to take his power slot should stop their useless talk about him, and busy themselves with what can add value to society.
“Like Jephthah the Gileadite, he has fought many battles on behalf of the Yoruba people and won despite his rough beginning and God does not need anybody’s permission to put such in his hall of fame despite their past deeds and ancestry”.
Bakare, who said he reasons straight from scripture, said strange bedfellows coming together for a Yoruba front have a hidden agenda.
“When Pilate and Herod agreed, it was because he wanted to kill Jesus.”
Bakare concluded by saying he is not a friend to anyone, but he is like the rain who falls on the just and the wicked. He said he would defend the rights of his enemies even when they have the right.
