I used to know one Tunde Bakare who later styled himself Pastor Tunde Bakare at Redeemed Christian Church of God, Adeniyi Jones branch in 1991. This irascible preacher, then a convert from the Islamic faith was fiery and was unnecessarily zealous. Reports had it that he came to the Redeemed Camp along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway to see the General Overseer of church, Pastor Enoch Adebayo for counselling.
However, after some spiritual exercise that included counseling, prayers and of course deliverance, Tunde Bakare was converted to the Christian faith. The Redeemed GO reportedly handled his case in a special way because of his background. He assisted him in his law studies as he was then a law student. He provided special favour to him and ensured that he enrolled in the Redeemed Bible College for more exposure to the word of God.
After his graduation at the university and at the Redeemed Bible College as well as his subsequent Call to Bar, Tunde Bakare was ordained a pastor in the church. Few years after conversion, Bakare was transferred to the Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja branch of RCCG to take care of the flocks there.
But Bakare, because of his background, became unnecessarily fiery and militant; verbally attacking everybody including the church authorities. Efforts to control him failed. Before the authories knew it, Tunde Bakare had carried the church’s properties at Adeniyi Jones by Adekunle Junction and fled.
He then established his own church which he called the Later Rain Assembly at Acme Road, Ogba in 1991. On hearing the news of Tunde’s misdemeanor, Pastor Enoch Adebayo cried. He cursed him and directed that none of the church members should go to retrieve the properties he filtered away. Bakare claimed that he established the church at Adeniyi Jonesby Adekunle Junction and therefore deserved the right to convert the properties to his personal use.
The RCCG members then and those who later knew this story treated Tunde Bakare’s Later Rain Assembly like a plague. Reports have it that he later went and begged for forgiveness from Pastor Adebayo.
The question is who then is cursed? He or Ndigbo who have made waves all over world and also in Nigeria? Tunde Bakare boasts that he would be the next President of Nigeria in 2023; that Muhammadu Buhari is the 15th and he is ordained to be the 16th President of Federal Republic of Nigeria. What an arrant nonsense!
Indeed, this has been his routine: to always dish out prophesies that would never come to pass? I recall that he abandoned his church in 2011 and paired with Muhammadu Buhari, spending the hard earned money of the church, most of its members are highly impecunious and wretched. The outcome was a disastrous failure. He had told the congregants that he was going to be the Vice President under Buhari. All turned out to be trash. Can God be mocked?
His gobbledygook that Igbos were cursed by Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s Prime Minister in the First Republic at the span of the 1966 coup is a gambit aimed at deriding a nation of over 44 million people for selfish reason. This is formulated because he wants to sneak into power through the backdoor.
The narrative is as evil as the man that dished it out. Was he there? If he was not there, who then told him the insidious tale? The dead man or his offspring who apparently were not anywhere near the place when the so called officers whom Bakare branded “Ibos” staged the putsch? This is indeed sheer hatred against the Igbo. It is a hate speech which no Igbo man should tolerate. It is meant to pitch the Igbo against the Hausa/Fulani and of course Muslims (his former brethren) against the Igbo and indeed further ostracise them in scheme of things.
This is as vexatious as the ranting of another inglorious fellow whose activities have of lately given the Christian faith no good name. Apostle Johnson Suleman, like Tunde Bakare was a Muslim before his ‘conversion’ into the Christian faith.
In one of his talks in his Omega Fire Ministries, Suleman described Igbos as shameless and a people who are not worthy to be entrusted with the leadership of Nigeria. He regaled his bewildered congregation that even if the Biafra nation is granted, Igbo man will destroy it. Like Bakare, Suleman is a victim of his self delusion. It is Suleman who should be ashamed of his actions as a cleric so far.
How many times has he been accused of sleeping with women of easy virtue even as a self proclaimed pastor? How many times has he been accused of fathering babies by women? How many Baby Mamas have consistently laid claim to his being responsible for their lovechildren? Does his verbose lifestyle not betray the teaching of the Bible that admonishes Christians to “be sober and vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”. 1 Peter 5vs8.
Therefore, the two men, by their utterances misrepresenting God and by that process gone astray. They should apologise to Ndigbo immediately.
And for the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale, who insultingly grunted that the Igbo cannot be entrusted with the office of the Nigerian Presidency”, the worry is that the delinquent and exuberant Oba may be a victim psychopathy? His outer shell gives him out as one consistently decked in hard substance and has ultimately been led astray by pixies.
If the Oba Adewale is blind to state encouraged killings and kidnappings, ultra nepotism, scheming Igbo out of governance and the economy, opening of the borders of Nigeria to Barbers of Arabs descent to terrorise innocent citizens of this country (without any of the hoodlums and terrorists being arrested and prosecuted) one-sided governance meant to favour only the north, born to rule mentality (misconception) state-induced ruination of the economy, corruption in high and low places etc, then something must be wrong with his psych.
If all is well, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), wouldn’t have been born.
This exuberant Oba should be banished from his kingdom and treated like the mediaeval Yoruba Obas who, on the conviction of any misdemeanour, were cast out of their domains and made to commit suicide outside their empires.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
