Tunde Bakare Admits Defeat…

“We confidently wear our zero votes as a badge of zero tolerance for a certain kind of politics.”  That was Pastor Tunde Bakare’s response to not winning the position of Presidential standard bearer for the All Progressives Congress (APC) at their recently concluded Presidential primaries.  Bakare had previously told his congregation and Nigerians that God told him that he would be the next President of Nigeria after Muhammadu Buhari.

This response has told us everything we need to know about the 67-year-old pastor.  He has shown us that he is a man who cannot admit that his wishful thinking failed him.  Wishful thinking fails us all.  Who hasn’t wanted something even against the reaches of common sense or human possibility? God did not tell Bakare that he would be the next President of Nigeria. 

It was an ambition Bakare ha d for himself and he wanted to speak it into existence to make it “real” so he used God’s Name to give his ambition “credibility”.  Bakare knows the psychology of Nigerians.  He knows they are moved emotionally by God’s Name so he applied that strategy hoping it would work in his favour. Unfortunately for him he failed to apply the biblical mantra that faith without works is dead. What he did is akin to preparing to run a hundred-metre dash at the Olympics one month before the Olympics begins when world class runners practised for four years prior to compete in that same Olympics! 

Bakare is not a politician.  Sometimes Nigerians are fond of copying templates from other countries to achieve their objectives and goals.  “Ah, Trump was not a politician but he won!” they may say, forgetting or conveniently forgetting that his win was a one-off and should be an exception, not the rule (of America’s 46 Presidents only Trump never held a public or military office).  More importantly, Trump ran for presidency in a country where the person who becomes President is the person who can persuade their citizens that they are the one for the job; the person who becomes America’s President is not necessarily the best qualified for the job. 

In Nigeria too, who becomes President is not necessarily the best qualified but who spends sufficient resources, who is a party member with strong political structures and who has multi-tribal alliances.  Bakare did not spend sufficient resources (he has found out that it takes much more than N100 million to be a President).  He does not have strong political structures (he communicated with the delegates via bulk SMS, not even personalised SMS).  I don’t know about his multi-tribal alliances: if he has any they didn’t work for him on the day. Lack of the first two requirements show that he felt he didn’t need to do much work to become the APC Presidential flag bearer.

At his church service on the Sunday after he didn’t get a single delegate vote, he postulated bible verses about royal dainties and God making leaders out of losers. He even quoted late US President John F. Kennedy: “Mothers may still want their favourite sons to grow up to be president but they do not want them to become politicians in the process.”  Interpret this quote how you will.

There is nothing wrong with Bakare or any Nigerian of any sex, tribe, religion or belief over the required minimum age of 35 aspiring to be President of this country.  He or she should endeavour to put in the work and be prepared to live by any public bold statements they make. If Bakare had said after his zero votes that he made a mistake in saying God told him he would be Nigeria’s next President, we would all see ourselves in him.  

The closest thing we got to an apology was his public congratulations to the winner Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  He even urged his congregation to congratulate Tinubu as well.  

Obinna Inogbo, Lagos