Tunde Bakare: No nation can make progress when mediocres are in charge

Tunde Bakare, the serving overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, says no nation can make considerable progress when mediocre people are at its helm of affairs.

Bakare was speaking at The Platform, an annual conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos, on Thursday.

The virtual event was hosted by Poju Oyemade, its convener, and was in commemoration of the nation’s 60th independence anniversary.

According to Bakare, there was a need to ensure that the right people are in positions of leadership in order to put the country on the right track.

“If you compare our performance with the nations that began this journey with us — nations like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea — they’ve left us behind. We are still in the woods and are yet to come out,” he said.

“We thank God we are still a nation and we trust God that as we dialogue this afternoon and others bring their ideas to the table, those that are leading us will begin to put the best of us in strategic positions to move our nation forward.

“No nation anywhere can survive or embark on predictable progress when mediocres are in charge.

“I’m not sure and I’m not limiting the Almighty and I hope this will not be seen as blasphemy; I’m not sure the Bible contemplates Nigerian leadership, because the Bible says when the blind leads the blind, they all end up in a ditch. But we’re in a nation where the blind leads the seeing.”

When asked what could be done to address the challenges bedevilling the country, he explained that there was a need for a change of orientation.

“I think we put the cart before the horse and whenever you put the cart before the horse, there is motion backwards. We need to put the horse before the cart. We need urgent national redemption and until that takes place, we are just wasting our time,” he said.

Bakare also berated President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to deliver on his campaign promises.

“The present government led by President Muhammadu Buhari announced three critical things as their focus or agenda as they were coming into power: security, diversified economy and fight against corruption,” he said.

“If you look at the security archictecture, you will know something is wrong when our soldiers from the battle line are releasing videos of ‘we’re tired.’

“When he took the mantle of leadership and he relocated as it were, he took the power base of the military to the war front and we all had a sigh of relief that something was going to happen, but today, there’s so much bloodletting and bloodshed. I’m not sure we have really won the battle against terrorism in our country.”

On why he has not led a protest against the recent fuel subsidy removal as he did during the previous administration under Goodluck Jonathan, he said the protest at the time was for the “voiceless”.

“I’m not an activist. I did not campaign against subsidy removal during Jonathan’s time; I campaigned against oppression of the poor. We give voice to the voiceless,” Bakare said.