‘There’s a gross failure in Buhari’s administration’- Tunde Bakare

•••I’m terribly shocked

Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says there is “gross failure” in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television, on Tuesday, Bakare said this is not the Nigeria he had envisioned.

The former vice-presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) said the country is at the precipice and that many things currently happening in the country have not been seen before, adding that Nigeria has a way of bouncing back.

“This is not the Nigeria we envisioned not only as young people but in recent past. It is as if we are again at the precipice but Nigeria has a way of bouncing back; we are full of hope that God Almighty will help us. We are in a very perplexing situation as a nation. Many things that we didn’t see before are happening now. Even the president himself said so that nothing worries or bothers him like what is happening in the north-east, especially the banditry and kidnapping,” he said.

Asked if he is surprised by the state of the nation considering the role he played in the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power, Bakare said he is “terribly shocked”, adding that Nigerians, including himself, were hopeful about the change promised by the APC.

“Surprise will be a good thing for me. I’m not surprised. I’m terribly shocked about the things that are happening. I never envisaged them,” he said.

Asked to assess Buhari’s administration in the past six years, the cleric made an analogy of a six-year-old child who is still crawling, noting that the country needs “political medicare” to resolve its myriad of problems.

“A six-year-old child that is still crawling has problems. You want to examine or call the doctors to come in or a pediatrician, you say that this child was given birth to six years ago but it is crawling, just moving on its buttocks, not running, not walking, something is wrong. If we are going to assess, we need a serious political medicare. There is no problem that is devoid of solutions,” he said.

Asked if Buhari’s administration is a failure, Bakare said there is “gross failure” in the administration and that it is possible to fail forward in order to resolve the country’s problems.

“I like to use my own words. Failure will look, ‘like try again’, you can still do something with it. I once failed an examination in mathematics. In 1973, I sat for exam and I got what we called inverted six, which is nine in mathematics but I met a friend of mine, who is late now, Ahmed Abebefe, who was a genius in mathematics in secondary school but his English was terrible. I was very good in English… Yes, there is gross failure, it is apparent to everyone but you can fail forward,” he said.