I will never call Tinubu my President - Tunde Bakare spits

Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, has said he will never address the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as his president.

The cleric cum politician made this vow during a webinar on Saturday, where he gave his assessment of the 2023 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

While responding to a question after delivering his speech on the Zoom programme titled, ‘Building the New Nigeria: The Role of the Diaspora’ organised by the PTB4Nigeria In Diaspora Group, Bakare accused INEC of making a mess of the electioneering process.

The cleric had earlier said in his speech that the 2023 elections were below acceptable standards.

Though he said he would address Tinubu as the President of Nigeria, he insisted that he would never call him "My President."

Asked if he would give a thought to working for the incoming government as a Minister of Diaspora Engagements, the politician laughed off the suggestion and recounted what he told the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari last week.

He said he told Buhari that sometimes he called him President of Nigeria and other times, he called him "My President."

“Last Wednesday, I was at the Glass House where he (Buhari) has been restricted now because the main house is being renovated. I said I have done that for you. I want you to know that, because of the circumstances of your flying into power on the wings of integrity and incorruptibility, but you’re now passing onto someone who does not have that value,” Bakare told the participants.

He added that at “any public lecture anywhere, before this mess is cleared off, I will address Asiwaju as a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I will never call him my president.”

It would be recalled that Bakare paid ₦100m to obtain the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential nomination forms and participated in the presidential primary election on June 7, 2022, which Tinubu won with 1,271 votes.

But, the cleric has now claimed that he never participated in the election and, therefore, can't be said that he lost in the exercise.

He said, “I participated in the primary, and there were hundreds who participated only by stepping down, so there is no shame in what we have done. We spoke truth to power within seven minutes.

“I wasn’t there when they voted, I wasn’t there when they scored (me) zero, but we won that badge of zero and badge of honour.”