The North Won’t Stop Deciding Our Elections Until Our Constitution Is Rejigged – Tunde Bakare

The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare has come out to say that anyone who wants to lead Nigeria must negotiate with the northern part of the country.

He recently revealed this while speaking to ThisDay, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the North definitely has a way of giving you the crown and holding the sceptre, so it plays a big role for aspirants ahead of elections.

He added that this fact can only be changed if the Nigerian constitution goes through an urgent rejig.

His words, “The way our country is constituted right now, no matter who wants to lead this country. Anyone that wants to lead this country right now will have to negotiate with the north and the north has a way of giving you the crown and holding the sceptre and if that’s going to change, our glorified death certificate called the Nigerian constitution must have to go through a rejig.”

“I honestly will say, almost all the things that were going for the north in the days of Ahmadu Bello are no longer there. The textile industries where they dominated are not there anymore. The groundnut pyramids, etc. And what they have is what they hold. They have power.”

“Nigeria is structured in such a way that no section can win an election by itself. The southerner cannot win an election without reaching out to the north and the northerner cannot win the election without reaching out to the south.”

‘‘Excellencies, the world will definitely be a better place and much easier place to live in if all cultivate the culture of patience and tolerance in order to appreciate the values of each of us and the contributions that we all can make, for sustainable peace and development, globally.”

‘‘As a Government and as a nation, we continue to make steady progress despite daunting challenges, notably in the area of security.”

‘‘Different factors accounted for this, amongst which are, first, that insecurity linked to terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cybercrimes, and maritime issues, are transborder acts that go beyond the abilities of any single country to effectively contain.”

‘‘That is why matters of security have become the business of all the nations of the world to work together to overcome. Second, our borders are very long and porous, and their effective policing has become a daunting challenge.”

‘‘Third, easy circulation of small arms and light weapons, from the Sahel-Libya axis and the Central African region, have made access to these weapons readily available which inevitably compounds our national and regional security.”

‘‘Despite these huge challenges, concerted efforts by Government and our Armed Forces have accounted for the largely degraded capacities of terrorists across the country.”

“Our expectations were very high. Sometimes, I have sat down to think that, ah, as president, has Buhari not demystified himself, because the expectations of Nigerians were very high when he was coming to power.”

“To start with, the kind of ill health he had, he had never had such a thing and that affected grossly the first term. That ill health was a major thing. That he is still alive today is a miracle. If you put all the six years he has spent, other than infrastructure development, the promise he made to the public concerning Boko Haram or security, we know it has gone worse, as far as I am concerned.”

“They say it’s not as bad as we think. But I need to be convinced. The rail track to Kaduna, a few days ago, they bombed it. When my brother, Nasir el-Rufai said I should take the train to Kaduna, I said I will wait. They are trying their hardest, but no matter from which angle you’re looking at it, whether it is economic, whether it is politics, whether it is security, you will have something negative to say. But it is easier to be critical than correct. I will not beat my chest until I sit on that seat and do better.”