The Serving Overseer, Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare has said he never considered unseating Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as being speculated in the country.
Mr. Bakare also debunked speculations that he was in New York, United States to consult with President Muhammadu Buhari on the side of UNGA, to take over Mr. Osinbajo’s office.
According to him, he was invited by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attend the Goalkeepers 2019 Summit alongside the commencement of UN general assembly.
The clergyman offered the clarification in a statement he posted, Sunday night on www.tundebakare.com.
In the statement marked, “Prelude to the October 6, 2019, State of the Nation Broadcast,” Mr. Bakare decried the ongoing rumour that he is gunning to take over Mr. Osinbajo’s job.
While preparing for the state of the nation address to mark Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary, Mr. Bakare said he never envisaged issuing a preliminary address on Sunday.
“It is not in my character to respond to every whim and caprice of Libertarians in cyberspace, but it has become necessary for me to set the record straight on the misconceptions surrounding a video on the 16th presidency that recently became a talking point,” he wrote.
Contrary to alleged misconception, Mr. Bakare said the trending video about the 16th Presidency was an excerpt from the message he preached on Sunday, February 18, 2018.
He said that the excerpt was released, a year and seven months after and wrongly linked with the travails of Mr. Osinbajo, showed mischief and deliberate plot to heat up the polity.
Part of the statement reads, “Unknown to the purveyors of mischief, before the video began to trend on the internet, I had cause to correspond with the vice president through two channels, spurred by a message I received on WhatsApp.
“The message forwarded to me by a pastor in the United Kingdom expressed the disillusion of a Nigerian whose major concern was not the politics of Abuja but the economics of his/her bank account, especially following the proposed implementation of the federal government’s cashless policy.”
To offer proper context to his correspondence with VP Osinbajo, Mr. Bakare reproduced the message he got from his contact from the United Kingdom.
In his reply to the agitated clergyman, Mr. Bakare said while noting the frustration of the writer, he never agreed on the issues affecting Mr. Osinbajo’s office and person were unimportant.
He, therefore, reproduced his reply to the UK pastor’s WhatsApp message which he also forwarded to VP Osinbajo as follows:
“Every man will care about what bothers him most or bites him hardest. My concern presently is that come rain, come shine, the VP, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo must not be disgraced and humiliated out of office except he has truly and flagrantly violated his oath of office which I find difficult to believe.
“I fear for those who rejoice at the ‘fall’ of others. Those who sow such seed are unmindful of the consequential definite law of harvest. I truly grieve for my brother and pray for God’s goodness, mercy and grace to surround him at this moment.
“May the present overwhelming challenges, trials, afflictions and or guilt by association be resolved in such a manner that God’s name will be praised and glorified in him at the end whether or not he remains as VP till the end of this term? Every time I remember that God is just, I fear for my country and her people. Shalom,” Mr. Bakare wrote.
For the sake of integrity and to reassure the vice president, Mr. Bakare said he forwarded the conversation to Mr. Osinbajo through his aide-de-camp and through a mutual friend, Yomi Kasali of Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA).
Although his conversation was private, Mr. Bakare said it resurfaced in the media as an official statement coloured with different interpretations.
“Let me state categorically that I never granted an interview on the issues affecting the office of the vice president.
“When approached by gentlemen of the Press for a response to these issues, I declined to speak publicly because I have spoken in private.
“I continue to have no other motivation than the wellbeing, peace, unity and stability of our beloved nation in line with her God-ordained destiny.
“To reiterate: the ‘Number 16’ video predated recent developments and was thus not inspired by them.
“Furthermore, my private comments were misinterpreted as a public statement. In essence, the entire episode has been much ado about nothing.
“Finally, overnight on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, as I prepared to honour an invitation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attend the Goalkeepers 2019 Summit which was held in New York last week alongside the commencement of the United Nations General Assembly, God showed me a vision for Nigeria.
“I saw a rainbow across Nigeria with the word ‘RE-SET’ written boldly across the land. It is against this backdrop that I invite Nigerians from all walks of life to join us next Sunday, October 6, 2019, as we conduct a national security and governance audit as a first step towards resetting Nigeria on the path of predictable progress.
“The timely State of the Nation Address will be delivered at 11 a.m. in this auditorium and will be broadcast live on select TV channels and streamed live on our social media handles. I look forward to your presence and participation.
“I continue to trust God that Nigeria will be saved, Nigeria will be changed, and Nigeria will be great in my lifetime. Thank you for listening; God bless you, and God bless our nation, Nigeria.”
