The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said that he did not say that President Muhammadu ‘Buhari has disappointed Nigerians’.
The Serving Overseer was widely reported to have declared that President Muhammadu Buhari had disappointed Nigeria in an interview he had with publisher of Ovation Media, Bashorun Dele Momodu, on Tuesday.
Pastor Bakare, speaking on Arise TV on Thursday, dined the reports, saying that the headlines in the newspapers were the creation of the newspapers themselves and that those were not the exact words he used.
Bakare also said that sometimes newspapers make their own deduction from what was spoken but those words were not exactly or expressly spoken by him.
He said: “The truth of the matter is, that was an instagram live interview that lasted for over 2 hours and the audio and the video will be available, I’m sure the publisher of Ovation Media, Bashorun Dele Momodu, can make that available to the public.
“Those headlines in the newspapers were the creation of the newspapers themselves, those were not the exact words I used. I said, if I remember correctly, that the coming of President Buhari into power in 2015 was a breath of fresh air to so many people.
“But in the midst of all competing demands, the conflicts and everything that happened, the expectations they had; not all of them would have been met. And, therefore, Nigerians are entitled to say they are disappointed.
“I did not use the words ‘Buhari has disappointed Nigerians’. I will not ask the papers not to sell their papers using any headline. Sometimes they make their own deduction from what was spoken but those words were not exactly or expressly spoken by me.
He also said: “Please, let’s be very very careful not to tear this country apart and I am appealing to all men of goodwill to rise to this occasion. There are four issues involved in this matter that I have considered and by the grace of God as soon as I have the opportunity I will also bring to the attention of Mr President,”
“One of the issues is open grazing. I think it’s obsolete and it needs to end. It needs to end because the nations of the earth had gone beyond this. I was in Glasgow, I was in Israel, there are so many things we can do about agricultural pastoralism that will stop all the trouble in our land.
“We have lived with Fulanis and Fulanis have lived with us across this land. We must separate this agricultural pastoralism from the second thing the terrorist issues in the forest, the government must evict them.”
Pastor Bakare, was initially reported to have said the following
“We are praying hard that the county will survive and become strong again, this is not what we all call the Nigeria of our dreams
“Nigeria will survive and will become the Nigeria of our dreams but right now, things are not together, especially with the drum of disintegration which is louder than before.
“Nigeria is better together, if we go back together to the basics of how we came together, looking at 1960 and 1963, we can still be together. We are not there yet, but we are getting closer.”
“The truth of the matter is it is still the same Buhari, in the midst of many competing interests, we respond differently. The President is still himself, some have even asked me if he is not somebody else.
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“Power changes people, has power changed him or is he making the best situation of the circumstances? He will be the one to answer it
“The expectations of Nigerians, including everyone who woke up to say we need a breath of fresh air, has not been met. There is a feeling of disappointment.
“Citizens have right to demand for good governance. People deserve the government they get.”
“We rejected PDP and embraced APC’s change but it appears we have been shortchanged.”
