Former presidential aspirant and presiding overseer of the Lagos-based Global Community Citadel Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has warned that under President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria risks a popular uprising unless the administration changes course on security and the economy.

Addressing worshippers during his Easter State-of-the-Nation broadcast in Ikeja, the former APC presidential aspirant said the country is being driven toward the brink amid a fresh wave of killings in Plateau, Benue and Enugu.

He argued that Nigeria demands Joseph-type visionaries, not “motor-park politics.”

Bakare said, “Fellow citizens, at the centre of this political banditry, is the motor park brand of politics nurtured by the old brigade politicians and, in recent times, by President Bola Tinubu.

“Those responsible for steering the course of our nation lack the humility and character this moment demands…What we have seen since the beginning of the year is a descent into tyranny and the brazen abuse of power.”

Bakare, who ran against Tinubu for the APC ticket in 2022, said the economic pain unleashed by fuel-subsidy removal, naira devaluation and runaway inflation is pushing citizens to the brink.

Despite headline inflation easing to 23.18 per cent in February after hitting a 28-year peak in 2024, food prices remained relatively high. Once N460/$ before the unification of the exchange rate, the naira now hovers near N1,500. More so, forex scarcity and eroded margins have led to the recent exit of corporates from Diageo to Unilever from the Nigerian market.

In the latter months of 2024, food-price spikes triggered fatal stampedes as crowds flooded charity events to claim food items such as rice, while the World Bank estimates that more than one million Nigerians fell into “severe food insecurity” in the past 12 months.

“The stampede deaths in several cities at the end of 2024 were the most horrific climax to the economic hardships experienced by Nigerians.

“The heartbreaking reports of parents throwing their children over a fence in Ibadan to ensure access to charity food distribution, leading to the deaths of over 35 children, were tragically almost reminiscent of the biblical famine in Samaria during which parents resorted to eating their children for survival,” the Pastor affirmed.

Since the beginning of April, more than 120 locals have been shot, hacked or burned to death in Plateau State alone, according to Amnesty International and multiple eyewitness accounts. Relief agencies say the toll is higher, citing coordinated night raids on Bokkos and Bassa that left burnt homes and 3,000 displaced. In Benue, at least 56 people were killed in Logo and Gbagir after twin assaults blamed on armed herders.

Bakare cited a July 2024 report by the Financial Times, which accused the President of allowing the naira to enter free-fall, “fuel­ling impor­ted infla­tion and trig­ger­ing the worst cost of living crisis in a gen­er­a­tion…These meas­ures have pushed tens of mil­lions of already impov­er­ished people deeper into misery.”

The clergyman, who participated in the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests, said there is little patience left in the streets as the economic situation could trigger a people-led revolt if unchecked.

“People of faith have prayed to the point of weariness, and any call for prayer now appears to be a mere religious ritual.

“Some have concluded that we have prayed long enough and that unless certain pragmatic steps are taken with immediate effect, the rage of the poor may engineer social, economic, and political worst-case scenarios,” he argued.

He accused Tinubu of reducing the National Assembly to “a haven for legislative rascality” and the 48th member of his cabinet.

“Through its actions and inactions, the National Assembly has, in effect, become the 48th member of the President’s cabinet, while a cabinet minister has, more or less, become a third-term state governor in Rivers State, pampered by the indulgences of the President.

“Mr. President, it is through your influence that the Nigerian National Assembly has become a haven for legislative rascality. Mr. President, it is under your watch that the National Assembly has become an extension of the executive, grossly violating the principles of separation of powers and rubber-stamping the whims and caprices of your office, all while singing the international anthem of sycophants: “On your mandate, we shall stand.”

“Mr. President, thanks to your political machinations, Nigeria is now bedevilled by a captured National Assembly, the most ineffective in its checks-and-balances role since the start of the Fourth Republic. This National Assembly, the Tenth, has by its unconstitutional endorsement of the President’s abuse of powers proven to be the most spineless in our recent history,” he argued.

Bakare urged Tinubu to sack under-performing aides and appoint persons of impeccable integrity…reputed for transparency and accountability.

He outlined his five-point plan, which includes creating a Consolidated Value Investment and Development Fund to mobilise diaspora capital and repatriated loot; launching a Reform Amelioration Incentive Scheme to cushion the poor; restructuring security into local, state, and zonal forces; empowering a nonpartisan Directorate of National Intelligence; and “heal and unite the nation” through justice and reconciliation.

“No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power,” he told the President.

Bakare added, “Please, stop playing God! Nigeria is too delicate for this kind of politics.”

However, Bakare acknowledged some positive developments under Tinubu. He cited the increase in Nigeria’s foreign reserves from $35bn in May 2023 to $40bn by November 2024. He warned that these achievements should not overshadow the broader challenges facing the country.

In his stirring Easter message delivered during the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto issued a heartfelt and urgent appeal to President Bola Tinubu, calling on him to rescue Nigerians from what he described as “a cross of pain, brutality, and hopelessness.”

Using powerful biblical metaphors, Bishop Kukah likened the current state of Nigeria to the crucifixion of Christ, painting a grim picture of a nation besieged by insecurity, hunger, poverty, and moral decay.

“Mr. President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point. The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue… With a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil,” Kukah said.

While acknowledging that President Tinubu did not create many problems currently afflicting the nation, Kukah emphasised that it is now his responsibility to lead the country toward healing and restoration.

You neither erected this cross nor effected our collective crucifixion…Yet, Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain for too long,” he added.

Kukah criticised the President for the persistent insecurity, referencing the rise in kidnappings and the entrenchment of violence across communities, as well as the socio-economic hardship worsened by subsidy removal and inflation.

“Mr. President, please bring us down from this painful cross of hunger,” the cleric pleaded, urging the government to make food security a fundamental human right.

The bishop also pointed fingers at political actors, who, in the past, allegedly imported violence as a tool for political gains.

He warned that the cancer of insecurity had now metastasised and threatened the very foundation of Nigeria.

“Are Nigerians lambs being sacrificed to an unknown god?” he asked pointedly, questioning the sincerity and effectiveness of the government’s response to national insecurity.

Still, Kukah’s message was not devoid of hope. He aligned his message with the Vatican’s declaration of 2025 as the Year of Hope, urging Nigerians not to give in to despair.

“These times of great suffering should be times of hope, Hope that does not disappoint,” he said, invoking scripture and the promise of resurrection.

In its reaction to Bakare, the Presidency said that though it disagrees with the Clergyman on several points, it respects his right to speak and reaffirmed that President Tinubu remains committed to fulfilling his promises to Nigerians.

In a post on his X handle on Sunday, the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Mr. Daniel Bwala, wrote, “Pastor Tunde Bakare’s sermon and speech delivered this morning in the form of a message to @officialABAT is quite objective.

“He gave his general opinion on events and decisions of government; he critiqued certain polities and applauded some; he further offered his suggestions on the way forward. Importantly, he acknowledged the successes and strides of the President and his administration.

“Although we differ with him in some areas and positions, we respect his right to say his mind and assure him, as with many Nigerians, that President Tinubu is determined to deliver on the promise to the Nigerian people.”

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said it would react to Pastor Bakare’s criticism in time.

Bakare also faulted the state of emergency in Rivers State and suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the State Assembly for an initial period of six months, describing it as the “theatre of the absurd staged in Rivers State with puppets on strings controlled by directors in Abuja.”

In Fubara’s stead, he appointed former Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas as sole administrator, a development widely condemned by Nigerians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Speaking with The PUNCH on Sunday, deputy spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Mr. Philip Agbese, said, “The parliament will respond through the Special Committee on Rivers Oversight.”

For his part, a member of the Committee, Mr. Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), said, “There is no reaction to this high-level home politics.”

Ibas replies Bakare

Reacting to Bakare’s comments, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Rivers State Sole Administrator, Hector Igbikiowubo, said it was unfortunate that Bakare was using the period of Easter to sow discord.

He further said the Ibas-led administration would not dignify what he described as “vituperations” from Bakare with a response, saying such remarks neither added value to the discuss nor helped the peace-building process in Rivers State.

He stated, “The administration run by Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.) is focused and delivering on the mandate he has been given.

“Rivers State is going through trying times and we won’t be distracted by the commentary albeit the vituperations of people who want two minutes of fame.

“I don’t know this pastor, seriously speaking. And the Rivers State Government will not dignify his vituperations with a response.”

He added, “I sincerely do not know him. You said he used to be a vice presidential candidate. So, obviously he didn’t win whatever platform he ran on. Nigeria is a country of over 230 million people. We have almost half of that number of faces. So, we have thousands of preachers.”

He added, “If someone leaves the message he should be delivering to the Christian faithful in this season of peace and tranquility, rather than preach peace and the need to heal or the need to come together and he is preaching distraction or trying to make himself the issue, we can’t help but ignore.

“How has he contributed to the peace building efforts in Rivers State with his commentary? Would he rather have the roof come down on all of our heads in Rivers State?

“Whatever affects Rivers State affects the country. Whatever affects the nose affects the eyes. What affects the eyes affects the ears. Rivers State occupies a very critical space in Nigeria’s body polity.

“So, the easiest thing to do is to sit on the fence and grandstand and pass commentary that adds no value. I urge the likes of Tunde Bakare and the people around him, people who should be influencing Christian faithful properly, to note that the Easter season presents all of us an opportunity, especially those who occupy the pulpit and positions of authority to preach peace, peaceful co-habitation amongst all.

“Now rather than do that he has seized the opportunity to sow the seeds of discord and to foment trouble. I sincerely hope that others will see this as a learning call and seize the opportunities as they may arise tomorrow to help initiate peace-building efforts. (The PUNCH)