Sick President can’t lead a dying nation – Tunde BakareBy Olalekan AdetayoPublished: Thursday, 2 Oct 2008
The General Overseer of The Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Wednesday, took a critical look at the country, 48 years after independence and submitted that a sick president could not lead a dying country like Nigeria.
He said that contrary to what the Presidency was making Nigerians to believe, President Umaru Yar‘Adua that he saw on the television set during his nationwide independence broadcast, was sick and needed the prayers of all Nigerians.
Bakare spoke in Lagos at a special service he organised to commemorate the nation‘s 48th independence.
The clergyman said that to move out from the doldrums, the nation needed leadership that had strength, vitality and the mental capacity to turn moments of adversity into opportunity.
He said, “Today, we need leadership that can move the country forward with confidence and common purpose. A smaller and smarter government that can make barbecue, spare ribs, pork chops, sausages and ham from the pig in the poke.
“To do so, we must begin where it matters and proceed with strong determination to make positive and lasting changes for the better in four critical areas, like the four river heads at the Garden of Eden.”
Bakare identified the four areas to include the form of government, economy, education and righteous policies.
He recommended the Constitutional Republic form of government which he described as the best form of human government.
Under this type of government, he said the people ruled through their chosen representatives and those representatives must rule by law.
He said the Constitution that could be appealed to and that all parties sworn to uphold, was the governing document under the republic.
He said that the nation‘s economic pie needed to continue to grow as leaders focused the energy of the youth in farm settlements and agro-allied industries, especially in the National Youth Service Corps year.
He also faulted the exorbitant prices being charged for house rents in the country, saying that a fresh graduate who was asked to pay two years rent for an apartment would steal when he gets a job.
Bakare said that apart from declaring emergency in the energy sector, the crises in the Niger Delta also require a serious attention.
Arguing that God hated injustice and oppression, the clergyman asked the Federal Government to give to the people what rightly belongs to them.
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“You cannot silence the oppressed: they will rise and God will rise with them,” he said.
On education, he said that the nation should not be satisfied until every Nigerian child had the same chances for a good education that leaders and the well to do in the country wanted for their children.
He said, “A sick church cannot bring healing to a dying world; neither can a seriously sick leader bring progresss to his followers.
Sin, iniquity and unrighteousness thrive in an atmosphere of undue secrecy.
“Let‘s be honest, let‘s be open, let‘s ask God to give us leaders after His own heart so that by the time Nigeria is 50 years old as an independent nation, the trumpet of true jubilee will blow across this land.
“We pray, believe and trust God to restore our wasted years and heal our land and our
Source:
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20081002242123
