Not everyone who calls himself a pastor should be listened to. Peter warned believers in his day: “But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies… (2 Peter 2:1).
Pastor Tunde Bakare needs no introduction. He is a notorious Nigerian Pentecostal false pastor-preacher-profiteer. In 2019, Bakare declared to the world: “Take it to the mountain top if you have never heard it before. I am saying it to you this morning, in the scheme of things, as far as politics of Nigeria is concerned, President Buhari is number 15 and yours sincerely is number 16. I never said that to you before, I want to let you know it this morning; nothing can change it, in the name of Jesus. He (Buhari) is number 15; I am number 16.”
The same year 2019, he came out swinging at Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He vehemently condemned Tinubu as a presidential material. He chided Nigerians for praising the one (Tinubu) who stole from them, and regarding him as a generous man. “The foolish person would no longer be called generous. You can say ‘so so and so’ has stolen all the money in the state, but he is a very generous man, you are foolish.”
Bakare’s scathing indictment of Tinubu continues: “That’s why potholes are killing you, that’s what pools of water… you can’t drive now anymore because what is meant for road has been stolen since democracy began, they are living larger than life having jets here, having jets there, having house in Bourdillon, having house in this place, having house in that place, having house in every place at the expense of the public. You’ll not go without vomiting what you’ve stolen. Unfortunately, Nigeria people, you celebrate your villains and crucify your heroes. I see the race to 2023, congratulations Presidential ‘hope-fools.’ You cannot, you have stolen what belong to all.”
In 2020, Bakare resurrected Tinubu as a saint. “I have a word for some Yoruba people whose stock in trade is nothing but a rancorous noise characterised by bitterness and resentment about the ancestry of the former two-term governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu… I have a word for those Yoruba rancorous elements, noisemakers who not achieved as much as Asiwaju Tinubu has achieved, but are always querying and worrying themselves about his ancestry. Those who are envious of Mr. Tinubu and those who desire to take his power slot should stop their useless talk about him, and busy themselves with what can add value to society.”
The shifting and sifting positions of Bakare as a pastor is damning and dangerous. First, he said he’ll succeed Buhari as president. Second, he said Tinubu is a thief who is unqualified and unfit to be president. Third, in 180 degrees U-turn, he becomes the campaign chief, endorser, and promoter of Tinubu for president 2023. His 2019 characterization of Tinubu as a thief is incontrovertible. Bakare’s 2020 induced infatuation with Tinubu is obvious and understandable. But it is height of deceit and hypocrisy for Bakare to repackage Tinubu as a born again thief that will liberate and deliver Yorubas from political slavery and economic servitude.
With widespread sorrow and suffering among Nigerians, we don’t need sakabula pastors like Tunde Bakare. We need pastors who will practically portray Jesus in their preaching and lifestyles. Bakare is a false pastor, a false teacher, and a non-believer preacher. Bakare is proud and self-vaunting. He reads by the lamp of his own conceit. He interprets the Bible by rules of his own contriving. He has become a law unto himself, and pose as the sole judge of his own doing.
As a false teacher and a non-believer preacher, Bakare arrogantly and wrongly interprets the scripture to convince his congregation and his listeners that scripture should not be read or seen as God’s words but merely as the utterances of uninspired men, limited by their own prejudices, biases, and greed. No wonder, people hate sakabula pastors like Bakare but love their Jesus!
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