I am not a fan of retired military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. I told a few colleagues last week that perhaps it was God that knowingly frustrated my ambition to attend the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA). My reason: I am so sure that as a young officer I would have plotted to overthrow Babangida in his years as military president. This was because I was against most of the policies of his government. And that could only have resulted in either of two things: I succeed and I become a hero or I fail and I am sent to the world beyond.
I am convinced a lot of people feel this way about Babangida. But as a professional in any calling, personal feelings need be separated from professional calling. And that has guided my attitude towards issues relating to Babangida, especially since he made his intention to take a shot at the presidency in 2011 known. And my presumption is that anyone with a professional duty to perform must act in like manner.
As such, I find absurd the pronouncement credited to the head of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, yanking off his yearly State of the Nation address off African Independent Television (AIT) beginning from this October 1. And the suspected reason? The President of Daar Communications, owners of AIT, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, is the Director-General of the campaign organisation of Babangida, a man Bakare appears to hate with a passion. And his reasons for such are the same as those of others, with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, at the top of the list.
Bakare’s action raises so many posers: 1. has the pulpit become a political platform for scoring cheap political points? Agreed that God in the Old Testament appointed rulers for Israel among the prophets, it is very clear to everyone that those days are gone. Even now in Israel, democracy has taken root. And Bakare has failed to see a clear demarcation between the church and his human rights activism for a better Nigeria. The church obviously is not a platform such as that of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), where Bakare is a prominent member of a splinter group. 2. Does the word forgiveness exist in Bakare’s Bible? Even the Lord Jesus said in very clear terms that we needed to forgive those who have wronged us. Matthew 6 verse 12 of the New Century Version of the Bible could be a good reminder for Bakare: “Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.” Watch the use of language: just as we have forgiven. It is not like we will forgive. 3. There is no doubt that there are staff and shareholders of Daar Communications in Latter Rain Assembly. Bakare is one of the few pastors who mentor their members in doing business the God way. And if by one careless pronouncement that can be seen by so many others as the way to go Bakare annihilates the sources of income of both the staff and the shareholders, of what use then are his teachings. This should not even be coming at a time that the AIT is in dire financial straits.
What Bakare did is not edifying to the body of Christ in anyway. It is rather capable of causing serious division and bringing untold hardship on those who are members of that body. Dokpesi did not go into the Babangida campaign organisation with AIT as one of the campaigners for the project. He only rather happens to be the owner of the company. This does not equate him with AIT. This is more so that Daar Communications is now a public quoted company. It is no longer solely his baby. And so also does the money for the airing of the State of the Nation address come solely from the pocket of Bakare. I am sure that it also does not come from the SNG. So why should it be the sole prerogative of Bakare to determine who benefits from the broadcast rights? Or is he saying that the staff and shareholders of Daar Communications who are members of the church can be treated with levity?
Bakare should know that the church is now a very discerning one. People have gone beyond the level where they follow pastors blindly. Unlike the days of the Old Testament where only the leaders had access to the Bible, everyone now does. And they come in different translations, with the readers imbued with the ability to sift the wheat from the chaff. There is therefore no cover under which to hide again for pastors who assume that they can lord it over their followers, thinking that they will take all hook, line and sinker, as the saying goes.
And the same goes for the strongman of Kwara State politics, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who, two weeks ago, said emphatically that his daughter, Gbemisola, will succeed his son, Bukola, as the governor of Kwara State next year. Saraki said that the political calculations in the state have not favoured him at other times when he allowed people that were not his children to rule the state. As such, the transition, this time around, will be from a Saraki to another Saraki.
What a serious issue. I find such a development in a state such as Kwara ridiculous. A state with high calibre individuals such as Kwara should not be in this quagmire that has now resulted in it being called a Sarakite State, where an individual, without consultation, determines its fortune. This is a major challenge to the likes of industrialist, Prince Samuel Adedoyin; his daughter and former minister, Princess Funke Adedoyin; the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Lai Mohammed; and others with a firm stake in that state.
Kwara State, like any other state, has three senatorial districts. Logic dictates that another senatorial district should take a shot at the governorship after eight years of Bukola being in the saddle. But even if the other senatorial districts decide to concede it to the Central Senatorial District, must it be to the Sarakis again. Some have said the pressure to push forward Gbemi was from her mother who felt that after Bukola, who is from another woman, has ruled, her own child also should.
For some, it is heartwarming that Bukola has denounced the position of his father. For me, it is not. I will only believe his position when he carried out his so-called threat to oppose Gbemisola. I was a reporter in Kwara State in the month prior to the 2003 election that produced Bukola. It was the same method of denial that we witnessed from both father and son: Bukola was not interested in the governorship. A few months to the election, Bukola was, apparently, now persuaded to run. I will not believe that Bukola is not in the know about his father’s plot until the election has come and gone.
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