Nigerian State Has Blood On Its Hands – Bakare
The Serving Overseer of Citadel Community Church, formally known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, says it is regrettable that Nigeria has degenerated from how it was handed over at independence. Bakare said it was sad that with last Tuesday shooting of #EndSARS peaceful protesters at Lekki tollgate in Lagos, the military had introduced a blood stain to Nigeria’s green white green national flag. In a state of the nation address delivered during the Sunday service in his church in Lagos, Bakare called on the President, to “ensure that those who ordered armed soldiers to fire on innocent citizens are fished out and made to face the full weight of the law.” The cleric described the widespread #EndSARS protests as a symptom of Nigeria’s foundational problems that had persisted through different administrations, saying with the youth finally awake to demand a better country, Nigeria had now begun to witness “the crescendo of an era and the beginning of another.” He called for a new Nigerian culture where “government must jettison the leadership model of the biblical Pharaoh and Rehoboam, who ruined their nations through obstinacy.”
Bakare said, “Leaders must begin to listen to the people and show empathy to their plight. We need sensitive leaders who are not ashamed to shed tears with the wounded and who can tell the broken, “Your pain is my pain, and i will do everything in my power to lift your burden.” However he condemned the destruction of public infrastructure and looting by hoodlums, who took advantage of the protracted protests. As part of steps to reform the Nigeria Police Force, Bakare proposed that Ordinary National Diploma from a recognised polytechnic should be minimum qualification for recruitment into the police.