‘Scoring zero votes in primary poll with true identity is honour’ – Tunde Bakare tackles Tinubu campaign

Tunde Bakare, the overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says scoring zero votes with his true identity in the presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was an honour to him.

Bakare said this on Tuesday following comments credited to Femi Fani-Kayode, director of new media of the ruling party’s campaign council.

The credentials and identity of Bola Tinubu, standard bearer of the APC, have been the subject of scrutiny.

In his state of the nation address on Sunday, Bakare said Nigerians should reject politicians who practice “emi lo kan” kind of politics because they do not intend to serve the people.

“Emi lo kan” is a Yoruba phrase that loosely translates to “it is my turn”. It was used by Tinubu in an outburst in 2022.

Fani-Kayode replied to the cleric, asking Nigerians to disregard him.

“Bakare got zero votes at the convention. With due respect to him, he is a political paperweight, a political neophyte,” the former minister of aviation had said.

Speaking in his church, Bakare wondered why Fani-Kayode replied to him if he was a paperweight.

“Why are they then giving any thought to what I said? Maybe their alleged ‘paperweight’ is too heavy for them to carry,” the pastor said.

“Can someone tell these people that scoring zero in a primary election with one’s true identity and credentials intact as well as having original certificates from well-known schools: primary, secondary, colleges, and universities within and outside of this nation is a veritable badge of honor, absolutely legit and unquestionable.

“He said that I did a video asking members of our church to vote for their candidate and then turned around to ask them not to vote for him.

“Unfortunately, there is no such video containing such falsehood.”