This Is Not The Buhari I Know – Pastor Tunde Bakare

The state of things in Nigeria does not reflect President Muhammadu Buhari that I know, those were the words of Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Senior Pastor of Citadel Global Community Church Lagos.

Pastor Bakare said so during his State of the Nation address to mark the 2021 Easter celebrations on Sunday.

In the address, Bakare said, “I am compelled to speak out because the state of the nation does not represent the Buhari I knew when we took that solemn journey towards rebuilding Nigeria.

“I am compelled to speak out at this point because, given the state of the nation, the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari is in grave danger of being confined to an unsavoury side of history. I am indeed compelled to speak out because Nigeria is in a state of emergency.

“Fellow Nigerians, you may recall that as PMB took the oath of office during his first term in office, he summed up his election campaign promises in three pivotal agenda, namely: Security, Anti-Corruption & Eco Diversification with a focus on job creation.

“However, the 1st term saw the Buhari admin grapple with the collapse in oil prices and Nigeria’s 1st recession in about 25 yrs. Despite the false starts, the admin succeeded in bringing Nigeria out of recession and made some gains in security, job creation and anti-corruption.

“On security, the administration of President Buhari continued the military assault on Boko Haram that had commenced at the end of the term of his predecessor.

“We recall the PMB’s 1st bold move when he ordered the relocation of the Command Control Centre from Abuja to Borno. By December 2015, the government declared Boko Haram “technically defeated” and unable to mount conventional attacks against hard or soft targets.

“On anti-corruption: PMB took commendable steps in the fight against corruption at the beginning of his admin, including the attempt to plug the loopholes in the system through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) intervention.

“In 2016, Nigeria received its highest scorecard so far in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

“On job creation, at the beginning of his administration, President Muhammadu Buhari embarked on large-scale skill development through the N-Power programme. Under this scheme, hundreds of thousands were empowered”.