The homily of Pastor Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of Global Community Citadel Church, has stirred up still waters as some members of the Pro-Tinubu government have come out to fault him, noting that his statement is geared towards sowing seeds of discord in the minds of Nigerians.
One of Bakare’s critics is the Rivers State Sole Administrator, Retired Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas, who mentioned that the pastor used the period of Easter, a season of peace and repentance, to foster seeds of discord in the country.
Tunde Bakare’s homily touched on the issues bothering the nation. He expressed concerns over how impregnable the National Assembly has become, even allowing the actions of the president to go without the needed checks and balances to appraise them.
During a press briefing, Hector Igbikiowubo, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Rivers State Sole Administrator will not be distracted because of Bakare’s sermon of discord.
“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 wonโt be distracted by the commentary, albeit the vituperations of people who want two minutes of fame.”
โI donโt know this pastor, seriously speaking. And the Rivers State Government will not dignify his vituperations with a response. I sincerely do not know him. You said he used to be a vice presidential candidate. So, obviously he didnโt 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.”
“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 canโt help but ignore.”
โHow 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?”
โWhatever 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 Nigeriaโs body polity.”
โSo, 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.”
โNow 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.”
“Tunde Bakare has not helped in this instance and I will not dignify his commentary with anything other than pointing this out,” Igbikiowubo explained.
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