The Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), must not be disgraced out of office.
Bakare said this on Sunday at a press conference he addressed.
He, however, said he would only support Osinbajo being kicked out of office if the Vice President was found to have violated his oath of office.
He said: “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.”
Find below the full text of the press conference:
BEING TEXT OF REMARKS BY PASTOR ‘TUNDE BAKARE
ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
AS A PRELUDE TO THE OCTOBER 6, 2019 STATE OF THE
NATION BROADCAST
VENUE: PLOT 4, AKILO ROAD, OFF OBA AKRAN AVENUE,
OGBA, IKEJA, LAGOS, NIGERIA.
Fellow Nigerians, distinguished Gentlemen of the Press, on the 12th
of August 2019, about six weeks ago, I was prompted to address the
state of the nation with emphasis on the security situation, leveraging
the occasion of the 59th anniversary of our Independence. As I began
preparations for that State of the Nation Broadcast slated for next
Sunday, October 6, 2019, little did I realise I would be giving a
preliminary address a week before the main speech in the light of
recent developments.
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. This
clarification is necessary for three reasons.
Firstly, in keeping with my calling as a servant of God, I must ensure
that truth soars high above falsehood and that the fellowship of the
saints be not ill-spoken of by a keenly observant world.
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Secondly, it is my duty as a citizen who is privileged to have the ears
of fellow citizens to ensure that well-meaning Nigerians are not
misinformed about our activities. Thirdly, I do not want the ideas and
solutions to our nation’s pressing problems, which, by the grace of
God, I will be proposing next week, to be drowned in the noise of
needless controversies, because an actionable roadmap to the stability,
security and success of our nation may very well be found therein. It
is, therefore, necessary to clear the air ahead of the October 6, 2019
State of the Nation Broadcast.
Contrary to the misconceptions and misinformation, the trending
video about the 16th presidency was an excerpt from a message titled
“Be Grateful for Your Blessings (Part 3),” which I preached in this
auditorium on Sunday, February 18, 2018. That that excerpt was
released at this time, a year and seven months after the statements
were made, and erroneously associated with recent developments
relating to the Office of the Vice President, suggests that it was either
done by the uninformed, or was a deliberately designed attempt to
misinform the public by linking unrelated issues, in order to create
divisions where there are none, thereby heating up the polity
unnecessarily.
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
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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 give proper context to my
correspondence with the vice president, I will read out the full
message forwarded to me by this pastor in the UK:
I really don’t care that The Presidency has dissolved The
Economic Management Team headed by Prof. Osinbajo
and replaced it with The Economic Advisory Council
(EAC) which will henceforth report directly to The
President, or that Prof. Osinbajo is not a member of
EAC.
I don’t care that The Social Investment Portfolio,
otherwise known as ‘Trader Moni’, has been moved to a
new ministry, or that Trader Moni is to be audited.
I don’t care that President Buhari has dissolved The
Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery
of Public Property (SPIP) led by Obono-Obla and
instituted by then Acting President Osinbajo.
I don’t blink an eyelid that The Vice President has been
directed to seek presidential approval before
administering the ministries and agencies under his
portfolio.
Nor do my eyelids quiver at the news that some of those
agencies have been removed from his purvey, notably –
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National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA),
National Boundary Commission (NBC), Border
Communities Development Agency (BCDA) and Social
Investment Programmes (SIP). All of which have been
moved to the newly created Ministry of Social
Development, Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster
Management.
I don’t care that most of The Vice President’s aides have
been approved for redeployment away from his office, to
other agencies and MDA’s.
I’m not even bothered that The Vice President’s
remaining aides have been ousted from their office space
within The Presidency and directed to look for offices
outside The Villa.
What I do care about is that The Federal Government has
slammed a (punitive) 3% charge on lodgments into a
corporate account of N3,000,000 and above and also a
5% charge for withdrawal from corporate accounts of
like sums.
They further slammed a 2% charge on all lodgments of
N500,000 and above into a personal account, while
adding a charge of 3% on withdrawals from same.
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What this means is that if I pay N500,000 into my
personal account, I will automatically be charged
N10,000.
The banks will also still charge transaction fees for
withdrawals and lodgments, VAT @7.5%, account
maintenance fee, stamp duty and any other fee/charges
the banks decide to throw at me.
The onslaught is relentless! Nigerians are now to pay to
put their money in a bank. They pay to keep it there and
they pay to remove it.
The Government is putting its hand in our pockets. There
must be something we can do about this.
I have been relentless [in] my opinion that these people
have nothing good for this country than sorrow, tears and
blood. Even their defenders/supporters are short of words
to use in defending them as before. We were labelled
wailers thus every sensible Nigerian complaining is now
a wailer.
A deposit of N500k will cost you N10,000 in deposit
charges in addition to SMS, COT, VAT, Acct.
Maintenance, Stamp duty, money transfer & all other
covert charges.
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In Nigeria you now pay to deposit your own money in
the bank, your own money o, not stolen money but
worked for.
NIGERIANS PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR FUEL
PRICE INCREASE
BUHARI’S SUPPORTERS ARE NOT EXEMPTED…..
GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE IS NON
DISCRIMINATORY
NEXT LEVEL OF SUFFERING COMING OUT
STEALTHILY.
A number of you may have also received this message. In the interest
of minimising misinformation, according to cbn.gov/cashless, the true
state of affairs is that the policy affects “cash-based transactions
which stipulates a cash handling charge on daily cash withdrawals
that exceed N500,000 for Individuals and N3,000,000 for Corporate
bodies. The new policy on cash-based transactions (withdrawals) in
banks, aims at reducing (NOT ELIMINATING) the amount of
physical cash (coins and notes) circulating in the economy, and
encouraging more electronic-based transactions (payments for goods,
services, transfers, etc.).” In any case, when I read the WhatsAppforwarded
message, I noted the underlying frustrations of the
anonymous author. I did not, however, agree that the issues allegedly
affecting the office and person of the vice president were unimportant,
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particularly given our relationship. I, therefore, replied the message
with the following words:
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. Tunde Bakare
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In keeping with the need for integrity, and in an attempt to reassure
the vice president, I forwarded the conversation through his aide-decamp
and through a mutual friend, who happens to be my mentee,
Pastor Yomi Kasali of Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA). The
messages were pleasantly acknowledged, with Pastor Yomi Kasali
sending an additional response:
Pastor Sir,
This is very good and timely, you have written as a
patriarch of faith and voice of heaven. I learn from you
daily and hope to be more like Christ while learning
from you.
Your spirit is pure and heart is clean, I’m proud indeed
to call you ‘My Pastor’, thanks a lot sir.
Blessings sir.
Although this was an entirely private conversation, it resurfaced in the
media as an official statement and I was surprised to find it circulating
and coloured with various interpretations and misinterpretations. 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
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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.1 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.
Pastor ‘Tunde Bakare
1 Please follow via any of the following: live.lraglobal.org or youtube.com/LRAGlobalOnline or
facebook.com/LRAGlobal