Tunde Bakare, senior pastor of Citadel Global Community Church, on Sunday said he has vehemently supported President Muhammadu Buhari because God told him Mr Buhari has a role in stabilising Nigeria. 

Mr Bakare, a critic of successive past administrations who once said he is not under any obligation to protest against the Buhari government, made this statement in a State of the Nation Broadcast on Sunday. 

Highlighting his role in the coalition of political parties that birthed the All Progressive Congress and eventual emergence of Mr Buhari in 2015, Mr Bakare said God had in a vision shown him that Mr Buhari has a critical role in the stabilisation of Nigeria. 

“After the controversial and divisive 2011 elections, as Nigeria drifted along sectional undercurrents and the nation sought a unifying force, some of us prevailed on General Muhammadu Buhari not to quit the stage but to take back his words and form a coalition of the best of the North and the best of the South to salvage our nation,” Mr Bakare said. “I must admit that I played a critical role in that mission. God had shown me in a vision that GMB still had a role to play in stabilising Nigeria.” 

Since assuming power in 2015, Mr Buhari has shown no commitment towards stabilising the country. His actions has often cast him as a sectional leader who does not cares much about Nigeria’s diversity.

Columnist and Public Affairs analyst, Professor Farouk Kperoogi detailed how the president publicly betrayed his “deep-seated loathing” of Igbos, Nigeria’s third largest ethnic group.

The president has also been accused of prioritising issues concerning his Northern Fulani ethnic group, particularly the nomadic herdsmen, to the detriment of other tribes.

Mr Buhari’s manifest clannish sentiments has heightened renewed agitations among secessionist and self determination groups including IPOB and some Yoruba activists. 

Fiery cleric, Bishop Hassan Kukah, in his last Christmas homily, warned that the country risked disintegration if the president does not reverse his nepotistic attitude to governance.

The U.S., in its 2020 human rights practices report on Nigeria stated that the Buhari administration was in the habit of handing out important federal positions to “particular ethnic groups.”

Lamenting the spate of insecurity in the country under the watch of Mr Buhari, however, Mr Bakare said security governance is “superficial” and inadequate.

“Years after the government assured Nigerians that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated,”  we are once again confronted with entire villages being overrun,” Mr Bakare said. “While I commend the bravery of our armed forces, the worsening security situation is an indication that our approach to security governance is simply superficial and inadequate to deal with the root causes of the problem.”

Mr. Bakare further urged the Buhari government to consider a national rebirth conference focused on “devolution of policing powers to the subnational governments”, arguing that calls for “restructuring” is not an attack on Nigeria’s unity or a call for Nigeria’s disintegration. 

“Restructuring means empowering the North West, the North Central, the North East, the South West, the South South and the South East, so that every part of our country will be safe and prosperous,” Mr Bakare said. “Show me one person who does not want this for our country, and I will show you an enemy of Nigeria.”