Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Tunde Bakare, has reminded Nigerians that he warned against the “Emilokan” kind of politics.
The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, said this while speaking to his congregation on Sunday, noting that ’emilokan’ is a tendency of authoritarianism.
Emilokan, a Yoruba saying, meaning ‘It’s my turn,’ was made popular by President Bola Tinubu during his 2023 pre-election campaign when he claimed that it was his turn to be president.
Pastor Bakare, who talked about many current national issues during his speech said, “I’m reminded of the warning that I sounded to Nigerians in January 2023 in my address titled, ‘Bridging the gap between politics and governance.
“I warned that the politics of entitlement; the ’emilokan’ type of politics would breed an imperial presidency, one that would slide towards dictatorship and would be intolerant of dissent.”
The cleric was refering to the travails of suspended Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as well as the detention of the former boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, by the Department of State Services.
Mr. Emefiele in particular is still being held by the DSS, despite a subsisting court order granting him bail and remanding him in a correctional facility until he perfects his bail.
He warned the Tinubu Government against making the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele a scapegoat over how he handled the country’s monetary policy.
According to him, Emefiele couldn’t have acted without presidential authorization.
Bakare said, “Mr Godwin Emefiele may have made the wrong judgement calls in the management of Nigeria’s monetary policy, but he must not be made a scapegoat.
“In the provisions of the central bank of Nigeria, CBN Act 2007, there is every possibility that the erstwhile central bank governor did not act without presidential authorization.
“If Emefiele is found liable for any crime, by all means he should be prosecuted. However, considering the dynamics of the pre-election environment and the then candidate Bola Tinubu’s public allegation that the naira redesign policy was targeted at him, the optics of the president targeting Emefiele for prosecution after winning the election and being sworn in as the president could be interpreted as a form of vendetta far beneath such a distinguished office.”
cpcnews.org 