The founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Dr Tunde Bakare, has dismissed mounting pressure from political figures urging him to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC), declaring that he remains committed to the ideals that birthed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bakare, who was a key figure in the formation of the APC, made the disclosure on Saturday during the maiden edition of the Citadel School of Governance Dialogue Series titled “Nigeria at 65: Historical Reflections, Futuristic Projection” held in Oregun, Lagos.
“There has been a lot of pressure on me from who is who to join ADC,” Bakare told the audience. “They come to my home. Even while I was abroad, the hierarchy of that party kept calling, saying they needed my voice.”
He added that even a younger political associate — one who had benefited from holding key positions within the APC — had urged him to lend his influence to the ADC.
But Bakare dismissed the overtures outright. “I am not going to take part in ADC,” he said. “The last time I knew about ADC was about a plane that crashed. I wish them well, because we need a robust opposition. But you don’t birth a child called APC and then try to kill it yourself. We are not going to have another Awolowo–Akintola crisis in the South-West.”
Bakare, who once served as a running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential election, described President Bola Tinubu’s emergence as the product of divine orchestration.
“If God wants to remove emilokan, He knows how to do it,” he said, referencing Tinubu’s now-famous campaign slogan. “You can’t get the kind of thing Tinubu has brought without God’s support.”
His remarks come amid a flurry of political realignments and speculation over the growing influence of the ADC, which some see as a potential platform for disenchanted politicians ahead of the 2027 general election.
At the same event, guest speaker Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, lamented that corruption and tribalism remained Nigeria’s most persistent challenges, warning that ethnicity should never be the measure of effective governance.
“The two problems our country faces are corruption and tribalism,” Osuntokun said. “If there is a way of eradicating these two evils, we will be alright. Corruption is the father or mother of tribalism. If the money being stolen was available for development, Nigeria would be far better.”
He added that the ethnicity of a president was meaningless without good governance. “The fact that Tinubu is president does not automatically improve the life of an average Yoruba man, just as an Igbo presidency will not improve the life of the ordinary Igbo man if there is no development,” he said.
Bakare’s comments — both a rebuke of political opportunism and an endorsement of divine providence — underscore the delicate balancing act within Nigeria’s political class as the country marks 65 years of independence and looks ahead to another election cycle.
