The founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Dr. Tunde Bakare, has revealed that he is facing mounting pressure from key political figures to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC). However, he firmly ruled out the possibility of aligning with the party.
Speaking on Saturday during the inaugural edition of the Citadel School of Governance Dialogue Series titled “Nigeria at 65: Historical Reflections, Futuristic Projections”, held in Oregun, Lagos, Bakare disclosed that several prominent individuals—including a former governor and a minister from the South-West—had approached him about joining the ADC.
“There has been a lot of pressure on me from the ‘who is who’ to join ADC,” he said. “They come to my house. Even when I was abroad, the party’s leadership kept calling, saying they needed my voice.”
He added that a younger political associate, who previously held strategic positions within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), also encouraged him to lend his influence to the ADC.
Despite the lobbying, Bakare was unequivocal in his refusal.
“I am not going to take part in ADC,” he declared. “The last time I heard about ADC, it was the name of a plane that crashed. I wish them well, because we need a vibrant opposition. But you don’t birth a child called APC and then try to kill it yourself. We are not going to have another Awolowo–Akintola crisis in the South-West.”
Bakare, who played a key role in the formation of the APC, reaffirmed his loyalty to the party and expressed belief that President Bola Tinubu’s emergence was divinely orchestrated.
“If God wants to remove ‘emilokan,’ He knows how to do it,” he said, referring to Tinubu’s popular slogan. “You can’t achieve what Tinubu has without divine support.”
Also speaking at the event, guest speaker and former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, identified corruption and tribalism as Nigeria’s most pressing problems.
According to him, the ethnic identity of the president is irrelevant if good governance is absent.
“The two main problems our country faces are corruption and tribalism. If we can eradicate these two evils, Nigeria will thrive,” Osuntokun said. “Corruption is the father—or mother—of tribalism. If the stolen funds were instead used for development, we would be far ahead.”
He added, “The fact that Tinubu is Yoruba does not automatically improve the life of the average Yoruba man, just as an Igbo presidency would not transform the lives of ordinary Igbo people in the absence of meaningful development.”
