The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has stated that the 1999 Constitution is fraudulent and inconsistent, adding that it should be replaced by a new constitution put together by Nigerians.
While commending the recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day, he also said the country must address the marginalisation of the Igbo and other minority.
The cleric, who is also the convener of the Save Nigeria Group, insisted that Nigeria was better as one, saying he would never support the breakup of the country.
Bakare stated these on Saturday during the online event hosted by a group of Nigerians in diaspora, PTB4Nigeria in Canada.
The event with the theme, ‘Democracy Day Dialogue with Dr Tunde Bakare,’ was in commemoration of the June 12 Democracy Day.
The pastor, who spoke on the topic, ‘Rethinking the Nigerian State,’ called for a new constitution that was a product of the people of the country.
He said, “And the way to do that is to allow people selected or voted or appointed from different groups to sit down and carve it and then you subject it to referendum and the people say, ‘we are for it’. It’s a simple thing. You see all this trying to tinker with the constitution; I am just laughing because in the process… let me just restrain myself there because I don’t want others to think their effort is not appreciated.
“But the truth of the matter is you can paper-wall a crack all you want to, it’s a matter of time. The crack will surface. This constitution is not by the people and it’s not for the people. Even President Obasanjo did not see the constitution that he swore to because it had not been prepared the morning he was sworn into power; all these things are in the public domain. It’s not for us and it’s not by us. It is nothing but a fraud, especially because it says, ‘we the people’. When did we sit to agree on it? That constitution is just a matter of time, it will be discarded. It will be part of our history. It’s mumbo-jumbo. It’s not Nigerian constitution. It’s a military imposed constitution.”
According to him, there are only two major political parties in the country – the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said, “As presently constituted, there’s no room for independent candidacy in Nigeria. You have to be part of any of the registered parties and some of the registered parties are shelf parties that they just put on the shelf when they miss opportunities here and they cross there.
“As far as I am concerned, there are only two major parties today: PDP and APC. It was my privilege to move the motion in March 2012 at the Eagles Square, the motion that brought ACN, CPC, ANPP and all of them together.”
Bakare said he would give up his presidential ambition if he saw anyone with better ideals and plans for the country.
The cleric, while quoting revered author and novelist, Chinua Achebe, said the trouble with Nigeria was the failure of leadership.
When asked if he was ready to apologise for endorsing the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the former vice presidential candidate said he could not disown Buhari because of the failure of his regime.
“The problems he inherited and the ones created by him will not make me say let’s throw the bath water and the baby out. Are there some things that have been accomplished? You just have to come down and see things for yourself compared to where we were and where we are right now.
“But anybody that wants to blame me for 2011, 2015 and 2019 should also blame Samuel for anointing Saul. It was God who spoke to Samuel, brought Saul to Samuel and asked him to anoint him as captain over His people. That Saul rebelled against God; that Saul did not perform according to the plan and purpose of God does not make Samuel a worthless prophet. To those who want to take me to the cleaners; congratulations, I have done something, may God grant you grace to do your own,” he added.
Bakare said the country had a chance at returning to national ideals through reconciliation, reconstitution and reconstruction.
He said aside from the commendable recognition of the June 12 mandate of late Moshood Abiola (acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election), the country must address other historical grievances, including, “the lingering memories of inhumane treatment, economic deprivation, marginalisation and non-inclusion of the Igbos that have festered since the end of the Civil War.”
Bakare insisted that the government must look into the “continued perception of repression among various socio-cultural groups” that led to calls for secession and self-determination, and the bitterness and vengeance among some Fulanis and their host communities.
Others include the discontent in the Niger-Delta region as a result of continued environmental degradation and the history of bloodshed such as the killing of advocates like Ken Saro-Wiwa.
He said attention must also be paid to the lingering feeling of exclusion from the governance by women and Nigerian youths.
“As statesmen and stateswomen who think of the next generation, rather than as politicians who merely think of the next elections, though ‘we cannot always build the future for our youth…we can build our youth for the future.’
“Therefore, we must not only rethink the current Nigerian state but actively rebuild it such that the coming generations of Nigerians of diverse ethnic orientation; Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Edo, Ijaw, Idoma, and so on, will be proud to say these three words, ‘I am Nigerian!’”
