Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, stated on Wednesday that Nigerian politicians are not sharing in the economic sacrifices they demand from citizens enduring financial difficulties.
He made this remark during the Wilson and Yinka Badejo Memorial Lecture 2024, which took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Wilson & Badejo Foundation organized the event to commemorate the late Wilson Badejo, former General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church, and his wife, Yinka.
Bakare delivered the keynote address with the theme: “Cultivating a Culture of Dialogue: Nurturing Understanding in a Culturally and Socially Diverse Nation.”
He emphasized the importance of discussion over conflict to address the nation’s problems.
Bakare said, “All parties must approach the dialogue table with open minds, effective communication and empathy. Open and honest communication helps to establish transparency, making intentions and actions clear. When leaders communicate transparently, they demonstrate that they have nothing to hide, and that builds trust.
“Empathy is a bedrock of dialogue. It requires us to see beyond our own perspective and seek to comprehend the experiences of others. The ability to feel with others, to share in their joys and sorrows.
“It also means sitting where the people sit, as in the book of Ezekiel – feeling their pains and sharing their burdens. An empathetic leader does not feed fat while asking the people to tighten their belts. Nigerian political leaders have mostly not demonstrated empathy. Otherwise, how do you live so large while your people are ravished in (penury)?”
The cleric, addressing the aftermath of the #Endbadgovernance protests in Nigeria, remarked that hunger affects everyone regardless of religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation.
He observed that the core of even religious conflicts is a competition for economic resources, which is evident in politics.
“And you say, why? Because politics is the authoritative allocation of value.”
He stressed, “This is why it’s often said that hunger is a unifier. This is why citizens are responding or reacting to the hashtag #EndBadGovernance protests across the land, from the North to the South, to the East to the West. Hunger does not ask whether you are a Muslim or a Christian, male or female, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, APC, PDP, or Labour Party.”
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Bakare also expressed his belief that the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party lack any distinct ideology.
“The process of disagreement of methodologies is the way political parties are formed around ideologies. I don’t think the PDP and the APC have any ideology.”
He mentioned that the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, was previously affiliated with the APC before switching to the PDP.
Bakare said, “Obaseki contested on the platform of the APC for his first term and he won, and he contested on the platform of the PDP for his second term and he won. What’s the difference between the APC and the PDP? Two sides of the same coin.”
