The founder of the Latter Rain Assembly and self-styled convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has been a busy man since the issue of full deregulation of the downstream oil sector, which is now generally referred to as fuel susbidy removal by the Federal Government. Pastor Bakare, probably after getting tired of thumping the pulpit of his church and looking at the scant faces of a diminishing flock, decided he had missed the klieg light of political activism and had to relaunch his political career anyhow. Convenient for him, of course, was the burning issue of fuel subsidy removal. It did not matter whether the decision had merit or would be beneficial to the general public. What mattered to Pastor Bakare and his gang was the political advantage it would offer.After all, many of his party's chieftains have never hidden their intention of exploiting the nature of the nation's politics and economy to stoke the fire of discord. Bakare's boss, General Muhammadu Buhari, who he villified many times before his adventure at the polls in 2011 as not being desirable as Nigeria's dream leader and also then he told anyone that cared to listen that he (Buhari) was a military dictator, demonstrated just that immediately after the release of the results by allegedly instigating a bloody reaction that caused the loss of the lives of some innocent citizens. Many a Nigerian thought that Pastor Bakare would have learnt from the bloody aftermath of the April 2011 election and began to seek a path that would unite Nigerians and promote national development. But his recent actions, especially the dexterious manner he capitalised on the fuel subsidy issue to unleash his rage on the nation by railing at and raining curses on perceived enemies, portrayed the image of an angry man. But angry at whom' Is it at Nigerians for not voting for his party which denied him the opportunity of not calling the shots at the comfy Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja or at President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo, for getting the better of him and his boss, Buhari, in an election that a majority of Nigerians used to repudiate their political presence and reduce their electoral worth' There are, indeed, many troubling questions that only the founder of the Church of Latter Rain Assembly could provide answers to.But the way he, a presumed elder statesman, latched on to the opportunity presented by the fuel subsidy removal issue, twisting and turning it, even when other well-meaning statesmen were seeking solutions to the impasse, suggests sheer opportunism. The fact is he and his cohorts almost made nonsense of a national struggle, as people saw through their duplicitous intentions.Indeed, Pastor Bakare's activities and utterances at the protest and rally grounds, organised by labour, suggest clearly that there was more to the issue of fuel subsidy than he let Nigerians to believe. His utterances projected an individual seeking, out of sheer envy and in vehement pursuit of vendetta, to destory a building he had been refused entry. Or could he perhaps be thinking, delusionally of course, that he could engineer a people-power protest in the city of Lagos and force the door of Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja to open for his occupation' Such a scheme or intention is ungodly and God does not have a place for schemers. Since his inauspicious adventure in politics in the 2011 general election, when he was the vice-presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) or the running mate of General Buhari, which culminated in a crushing defeat at the polls for the party and a brutal deflation of his ego, Pastor Bakare has seized every opportunity to deride the government and/or rail at perceived enemies of his political ambition. It is not the first time such would happen of course. He once declared the death of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, after his prediction, that the former president would not win the 1999 elections, failed simply because he does not like the face of the man. He said some uncharitable things about General Buhari and wilfully forgot about them when the opportunity came to contest alongside the retired soldier.Not even the global acknowledgement given to the 2011 presidential election as the freest in the country's political history and the most recent pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the matter could assuage the crushed ego of the darling pastor, who, judging from recent events, must have for long been nursing the fantasy of ruling his country, a dream and/or fantasy which he is both morally and politically correct to entertain but which must be pursued in an honest and legal manner and not through inauspicious and politically sinister route as hiding under the cover of civil action to pursue some personal agenda.Pastor Bakare, as the man of God he claims to be, ought to understand that only God chooses a leader. He ought to understand that as a presumed man of God, his actions must be seen to be arbitrative, just as he is expected to apply the instrumentality of decorum in any given dispute. But we doubt if Pastor Bakare remembered all these when he threw caution and decorum to the dogs during the protests and unleashed his venom. There is quite the possibility that Pastor Bakare hears the voice of God, but only he can say whether or not he follows God's dictate or his own heart's desire to achieve his own ends. But the Nigerian Christendom and, indeed, all those who profess the mightiness of the Almighty Creator, including Muslims, are bothered by Pastor's recent actions and wondered if he is not pursuing his own selfish interest under the pretext of fighting a national cause. But then, what manner of a man of God would prefer trading curses to praying for the nation's good economic and social health' Nigerians know their true leaders, especially those who can lead them to the Promised Land. They can also tell those so-called leaders who, by their deeds, can only lead them to eternal damnation.Dr Layiwola, a consultant, writes in from ikeja, lagos.
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