Tunde Bakare, the founder and senior pastor of Latter Rain
Assembly, a Lagos-based Pentecostal church has declared he would be Nigeria’s
next president come 2023.
Bakare, in a video which has gone viral on social medial,
declared that he would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as 16th president of
Nigeria, saying this is why he was born.
“Take it to the mountain top if you have never heard it
before. I am saying it to you this morning, in the scheme of things, as far as
politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Buhari is number 15 and yours
sincerely is number 16. I never said that to you before, I want to let you know
it this morning; nothing can change it, in the name of Jesus. He (Buhari) is
number 15; I am number 16,” Bakare said, placing his right hand on his chest.
“To this end was I
born and for this purpose came I into the world. I have prepared for this for
30 years. When he (Buhari) chose to run in 2019, he is still number 15, when he
steps out, I step in. “His assignment is
that of Moses, to take Nigeria to River Jordan, but he can’t cross it. It will
take a Joshua to go to the other side and begin to distribute the resources to
the people of this nation,” Bakare told his congregation in the video.
Bakare, who is seen in some quarters as a controversial
preacher cum politician, had many times criticised previous and present
governments in the country. In 2012, Bakare was among those who mobilised
forces for daily protests that lasted more than two weeks at the Gani Fawehinmi
Park, Ojota, Lagos, against the removal of subsidy on petroleum products and
consequential price increase announced by the administration of former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the 2011 presidential election, Bakare was the running
mate to the then presidential candidate of Congress for Progress Change (CPC),
Muhammadu Buhari, who lost the election to Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP).
