Founder of Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has declared that his singular aspiration is to see a functional Nigerian nation, as he charged the pioneer graduates of his Citadel School of Government to become the new breed of leaders the country desperately needs.

Speaking at the maiden graduation ceremony of the institution yesterday, Bakare recounted a revealing encounter with a former British High Commissioner years back. He described how he had been shuttling frantically between former President Goodluck Jonathan, the late former president, Muhammadu Buhari, and the British High Commissioner’s residence, visiting all three locations three times in a single day.

The British diplomat, observing Bakare’s relentless movements, sat him down and posed a direct question: “What do you want?”

“All I want is a nation that works,” Bakare responded.

When pressed to define what “a nation that works” meant to him, Bakare traced his perspective to a defining experience in 1994 while attempting to obtain British passports for his family. He described walking into a British post office, picking up passport forms, filling them out, and posting them on a Monday to the British Passport Office. By Friday of the same week, all documents had been returned. The following week, the entire family received their British passports—no phone calls, no connections, no favours.

Despite his frustration with Nigeria’s systemic dysfunction, Bakare expressed unwavering confidence that a functional nation would emerge within his lifetime.

“I have been tempted several times to leave this country, go elsewhere to blossom,” he admitted. “If I leave Nigeria for the UK, I’m not going to a hotel. If I leave Nigeria for the US, I’m not going to a hotel. I have a place of mine that I can lay my head. I have the resources to sustain me there.”

 

“Every time I leave this country, if I sleep for ten to twelve days without return, it would look like somebody is beating me in my sleep.”

Addressing the 69 pioneer graduates of the Citadel School of Government, Bakare declared: “Nigeria is waiting for you.”

He expressed conviction that the solution to Nigeria’s problems lies not in “more of the same” but in a new set of leaders who understand that public office is a sacred trust, not a personal enterprise.

“Leaders who understand that public office is a sacred trust not personal enterprise, leaders who prioritize common goods over private gain, leaders who have competence to translate vision into policy and courage to translate policy into results. That new breed is you,” he stated.

Bakare, who has long preached about what he calls “the new breed without greed,” told the graduates they are the ones who will break the cycle of incompetence and corruption.

“You are the ones who will bring fresh ideas, ethical standards and a commitment to excellence into the corridors of power. You are the ones who will demonstrate that governance can be different, that it can be responsive, responsible and transformative,” he charged.

“For over a decade or two, I have been preaching about the new breed without greed and the radical opposition to corruption. Men and women, boys and girls who chose to win by righteousness, and that seed is planted in you already, and you are going to manifest in the days to come.”