Only restructuring can save Nigeria, say Bakare, Ositelu

Fiery tele-evangelist and Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, has said only an immediate restructuring of the country can prevent it from drifting to anarchy.

According to the cleric, unless Nigeria reverts to true federalism now, it will be extremely difficult to save the soul of the nation.

Bakare, a former vice presidential candidate to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2011, spoke with The Guardian after delivering a lecture titled “The Crisis Of Christianity And The Challenge Of The Church” in memory of the founder of the Church of the Lord (Aladura), the late Prophet Josiah Olunowo Ositelu, which was held in Ogere Remo, Ogun State.

He blamed past leaders for the present socio-economic challenges facing the country, especially the restiveness in the Niger Delta and some parts of the North, noting that such problems would have been prevented if the leaders had done the right thing.

Bakare advised the current leaders in the country to be upright in their dealings which the people.

“There is no alternative to restructuring of Nigeria. We must go back to the basics. We must prepare the foundation of many generations.

“In the past, people in their regions maximized the potentials of their land and contributed their quota to the Federal Government. We must go back to the regional system if we are not going to continue to see the unrest in different parts of the country.

“And there is no negotiation, there is no way out of it. We must go back and raise that foundation, restore and repair the bridge and then the increase of this government and peace will be experienced in our land,” the pastor said.

On the antecedents of Christian leaders in the country, Bakare said the leaders of the church had deviated from the pure truth contained in the word of God due to personal gains.

The leader of the Church of the Lord Worldwide, Primate Rufus Okikiola Ositelu, speaking on the challenges facing Nigeria, declared that the only way to rescue the country was to restructure it and allow the regions to grow at their
own pace .

Ositelu who described the current Federal system as absurd, added that the country must be restructured in a way to allow the regions manage their resources independently.

He said a situation where the federal government will “be giving allocation to states, local government, is very wrong. It is not done anywhere and that is why things are not working well Nigeria. In a proper structure, the Federal Government will only deal with the zones, the zones will deal with the states.
‘’With the proper structure, all these so-called Niger Delta Avengers will not be foolish enough to say they want to destroy their economy. It is because the Federal Government is controlling all the resources, that they are destroying all those things. If the regions only pay taxes to the Federal Government as it was done in the past, things would be better. Let every zone compete, don’t retard a zone until one zone comes up. It is very sad to see this sscountry in this condition.”