2023: Pastor Bakare Urges President Buhari To Pick His Successor

President Muhammadu Buhari has been called on by Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly to reveal his successor before the 2023 general election.

The cleric during a live broadcast in his church on Sunday noted that it was important for President Buhari to pick his successor in 2023 so that his legacies would not be put to waste.

Recall that President Buhari had announced in 2019 that he had no intention of picking a successor when he ends his government in 2023.

“Succession is very funny because if I did find anybody, I will create more problems for him or her. Let those who want to be President try as much as I did”

Bakare, who had declared his intention to rule Nigeria after President Buhari’s administration stated that there is a risk that a looter might rule the country in 2023 if Buhari fails to pick a successor.

The general overseer of Latter Rain Assembly said, “God is into succession. Anyone in government that does not concern himself about succession is destroying his own legacy because the person coming after you can just mess up everything”.

“Let us ask God for grace of accurate succession; that he (Buhari) will not hand over the baton of government and governance to thieves and perverts, to corrupt and power-drunk individuals, but those who are true patriots, who will serve like our founding fathers served; though not perfect, they did their best.”

He further added that by revealing a successor, President Buhari would join the league of strong world leaders like the late Deng Xiaoping of China; the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Goh Chok Tong of Singapore.

Bakare added, “As the government of President Muhammadu Buhari ushers us into the second decade of the 21st century, the third pivotal objective of governance should be to build a strong post-Buhari legacy facilitated by accurate succession.”

“In this regard, Nigeria must learn from some of the best succession examples in recent history. Of note is the legacy of Deng Xiaoping, a second-generation Chinese leader who laid the foundation for today’s China. Xiaoping flagged off the ‘Four Modernisations’ programme, which searched around the country for leaders who, in his words, were ‘revolutionary, younger, more knowledgeable, and more specialised.”

He noted that the policy of succession allowed China leaders to pilot the country’s economic transformation.

“We must also learn from Nelson Mandela who stepped aside after one term, but not without positioning the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. We must learn from the success story of Singapore, whose former Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, once said, ‘Mr Lee Kuan Yew has always emphasised political succession, and when I took over, likewise, I planned for succession…Prime Minister Lee is also working very hard to plan for succession.”

“Therefore, even as we build institutions of democratic governance, a key responsibility that history has bestowed on President Muhammadu Buhari at this turning point in our journey to nationhood is to institutionalise systems of accurate succession that will build and sustain the Nigeria we desire. This is a task that must be done.”