Election will not be conducted In 2015 says Pastor Bakare

While Nigerians and indeed the political class are already jostling ahead of the 2015 elections, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 elections and officiating pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has expressed doubts over the possibility of having the much anticipated elections in 2015.

Bakare, the running mate to General Muhammdu Buhari (rtd), who spoke with journalists after preaching a sermon titled: ‘Corruption and the Soul of Nigeria’ at his church in Lagos, said rather than 2015, the expected election in Nigeria will come earlier, in 2014.

“I don’t believe there will be an election in 2015. Instead, the election will come up in 2014. There are issues that will come up that will make the election happen in 2014,” he said.

The cleric lamented the deteriorating conditions in the country and blamed the backwardness, especially the retrogressive indices common with Nigeria in international ratings to the unabated corruption among political office holders, stressing that: “Corruption is killing Nigeria.”
He advised Nigerians to prayer fervently to rescue the country.

“We must pray and blow the trumpets in the hope that our nation can be saved by God before it sinks,” he said.

While making reference to the $1.5 billion loan collected by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) without proper approval and without precise action taken against the NNPC, he noted that “we have two nations in Nigeria; the Federal Republic of NNPC and the democratic Nigeria and described the imbroglio between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo as part of the “ambush”, which he mentioned earlier in his sermon, which will lead to the eventual emancipation of the country.

He lambasted Obasanjo for portraying the Jonathan as not tackling corruption, noting that he entrenched corruption in the country.

“Obasanjo goes about saying that Nigeria will go up in flames because his successor was allowing corruption to go on unchecked but he laid the foundation for corruption,” the cleric said.

While not sounding enthusiastic about the political alignments and re-alignments currently going on ahead of the 2015, when asked which party he now belongs to, Bakare said: “I’d never have any political party in my life. I belong to God. I sat down at home when the CPC called and I accepted because I believe that there are still men who will rescue the country. Now I don’t have any political ambition. I’m now doing what I love to do most. Politics can only take away from me.”

However, Bakare reiterated calls for a national dialogue as a way forward and assured Nigerians that there was still hope for Nigeria to attain its full potential in a near future, with God’s intervention.