Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
Controversial Pastor, Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, Ogba, in Lagos, has asked those plotting to change the constitution to ensure a third term for incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo to do whatever they wanted to do quickly, so as also to hasten the dire repercussions.
Controversial Pastor, Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, Ogba, in Lagos, has asked those plotting to change the constitution to ensure a third term for incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo to do whatever they wanted to do quickly, so as also to hasten the dire repercussions.
Bakare, in a seeming echo of Jesus Christ's ominous exhortation to Judas Iscariot before he betrayed him, said men were free to exercise their freewill, but bound to reap the consequences, be they good or evil. In this case, the fiery preacher warned that only deposition, disgrace or death, which had characterised past attempts, could result from the third term game plan.
He noted: "Gowon tried to elongate his rule and he was deposed, IBB tried it too, he was disgraced and Abacha tried it and died." Consequently, Bakare said: "For those who want to elongate their rule and reign in Nigeria, there are only three things that will happen to them; number one, deposition. And do we have an example? Gowon. Number two, disgrace. Do we have a model? IBB, and number three, death. Do we have an example? Abacha."
The cleric spoke Sunday while preaching a message titled, Miracle faith: What is it?
The issue of tenure elongation for the present regime has been a hot issue, with the nation polarised along the divides of those for and those against the agenda, which the purposed amendment of the constitution is meant to serve. President Obasanjo has refused to make a categorical statement as to whether or not he wants third term. Only last week in America, he said it was not on the cards "for now".
But the pastor said anyone that attempted it could have any of the three consequences happen to him. He urged Obasanjo not to"toy with fire", by succumbing to the temptation
It will be recalled that it was a similar message Bakare preached before the fall of the late dictator, General Sani Abacha. In that message Bakare had declared: "Your time is up, whatever you want to do, do quickly," and shortly after, Abacha passed on.
The same gospel minister predicted early in 1999 that Obasanjo would not be sworn in as President, saying that: "prophetic axe would come upon his head before May 29," which was the date fixed for the inauguration into office. The prophecy raised a lot of dust in the country then. It, however, did not come to pass.
Bakare had said then: "Rejoice not yet o land, your joy will be temporary, I'm bringing your judges, rulers, your governors, your prophets, your priests to my threshing floor, and after I've threshed them, I will restore to you a permanent joy. Obasanjo is not your messiah, he is king Agag, and prophetic axe is coming upon his head before May 29, 1999."
Bakare, defending the prophecy in 2004, said: "The prophetic word is not a useless word. It is not a common word, it is not something you get as a result of eating excess pizza overnight."