Former Presidential aspirant, Pastor Tunde Bakare has revealed how close Nigeria was to disintegrating in 2015 and his role in preventing it.
The General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly was speaking to Nigerians in Diaspora in Scotland and warned that Nigeria was on the path of destruction once more with the 2019 elections coming up.
He said: “Unknown to many observers, in 2015, following the lifting of the embargo, I worked closely behind the scenes with the two leading candidates in the presidential elections at the time, then President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, towards ensuring that the election results were upheld and that the transition was smooth,”
“I saw at close quarters how the fate of a nation could hang on a single decision. Therefore, believe me when I tell you that we escaped disintegration by the whiskers.
READ: Why Tinubu Attacked Obasanjo Over Buhari’s Re-election
Bakare warned“Now, four years after that escape, our nation is once again headed on a collision course with probable instability unless the tense atmosphere associated with our four-year electocratic insanity is managed with utmost wisdom.
“Once again, I have found myself in the inner workings of the chaotic political process and I can tell you that we live in precarious times. How long can our nation stand if we continue along this path? Is it not time to address the foundations once and for all?
“What, then, is the way forward and what is the role of the diaspora? Answers to these questions will constitute the concluding aspects of this address.”
He also revealed how former President Obasanjo wasted a fantastic government which was the best in Nigeria
“Between May 1999 and March 2007, Nigeria’s external reserves compounded from 4.98 billion dollars to 59.37 billion dollars,” he said.
“Aside opportunistic factors such as the oil windfall, these results were the outcome of astute economic management by an economic team comprised of the likes of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Dr. Charles Chukwuma Soludo and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, among others.
Bakare stated that this was arguably Nigeria’s best team, “That economic team was arguably the most competent ever assembled by any government in Nigeria’s history till date. Credit must be given to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for assembling that team.”
“One would have thought that this brilliant team that oversaw the Nigerian dimension of ‘Africa Rising’ would be given priority in the succession plan of then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Instead, after a botched third term agenda, the Obasanjo administration bequeathed to Nigeria a legacy of lame and limping successor governments that first sunk Nigeria into a constitutional crisis and then oversaw the plundering of the nation’s wealth in a free-for-all corruption jamboree.”