Bakare Urges Tinubu to Show Courage, Fix Insecurity, and Reunite Nigerians

The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has called on President Bola Tinubu to confront Nigeria’s security challenges head-on rather than “play the ostrich.”

Speaking during his State of the Nation address titled “The Darkness Before Dawn,” Bakare expressed concern that insecurity has escalated at a time when global attention is fixed sharply on Nigeria, saying terrorists and bandits are “brazenly daring the Nigerian state.”

He urged President Tinubu to restructure the country’s security architecture and avoid making decisions based on political considerations ahead of 2027.

Bakare said:
“Today, President Bola Tinubu stands at the threshold of history. The president has a choice: either to embark on the holistic reform of the security and governance framework and address the Nigeria Question, or, like his predecessors, to prioritise politics with 2027 in view… and administer piecemeal or superficial interventions.”

While acknowledging steps already taken—such as the declaration of a security emergency and large-scale police recruitment—Bakare challenged Tinubu, once an advocate of geopolitical restructuring, to “take the bull by the horns.”

He also recalled recent global concerns, including former U.S. President Donald Trump redesignating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and threatening a “fast, vicious and sweet” response to terrorists, which he said jolted Nigeria into a state of urgency.

According to Bakare, Nigeria must confront the unresolved “Nigeria Question,” which touches on identity, dignity, coexistence, governance, and the value of human life. He said these issues remain unsettled 65 years after independence and continue to fuel political, social, and regional divisions.

“The state’s failure to address long-standing disputes between Hausa farmers and Fulani pastoralists has allowed local tensions to mutate into a sophisticated and deeply entrenched network of terror,” he added.

Bakare accused the government of downplaying terrorism, insisting that Middle Belt communities have suffered for too long.

He said:
“Rather than play the ostrich and cover up clear terrorism as mere farmer-herder clashes, the Nigerian state has a responsibility to invade the camps of armed marauders… It is a shame on the Nigerian government that these communities would resort to calling on the American government to help because their government has failed them woefully.”

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