Rage of the Poor Imminent, Bakare Warns

• Says constitution that can’t bend will break • Rejects Buhari’s all-comer visa policy • Denies being consulted to replace VP

The Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church (formerly Latter Rain Assembly ), Pastor Tun de B aka re has warned that Nigeria is close to the rage of the poor citing the number of young people, who have taken to crimes.

Bakare, founder of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), has called for the review of the 1999 Constitution with a view to devolving more powers from the central government to the sub-national units, warning that any constitution that cannot bend will eventually break.

Besides call for true federalism, the priest dismissed claims that he was contacted to replace Vice President Yemi Osinbajo amid the crisis of confidence that some powerful forces in the presidency against the vice president between October and November.

He expressed concern about leadership failure in the country and its attendant consequences in an exclusive interview with THISDAY recently, saying if Nigeria “gets to the tipping point when people can no more endure, it will be difficult to escape the rage of the people.”

With the population of over 200 million people, Nigeria is neck-deep into socio-economic crisis with unemployment measuring 23.1 percent, underemployment 20.21 percent and youth unemployment 54.4 percent as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals.

In 2019, the World Poverty Clock, the United Nations poverty monitor, revealed that 91,885,874 people in Nigeria lived in extreme poverty, representing about 46.4 percent of its population.

Also, according to the World Bank, a person can be said to be living in extreme poverty if they live below the poverty line of $1.90.

Contingent upon worsening socio-economic indicators, Nigeria has been plagued with insecurity with the prevalence of armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, cyber fraud, ritual killing, piracy and oil theft nationwide.

Concerned with the spiraling socio-economic crisis, Bakare said :“I pray our country will not become an asylum of the mad. You can blame politicians if you want to. If they beat the drum and we do not dance, the party will stop. But they have a way of injecting money into the system.

“We are always clamouring for somebody else to fight our battle. That is the problem of Israel until the likes of David and Daniel rose up. The things going on in this country can be stopped. By the time they call us into a room and they drop bags of dollars in your booth when you are going, you sing a new song. “There are praise singers of every government from inception to today because they are beneficiaries of the loots. A time will come by the auspices of God Almighty Himself that the people will say enough is enough. We are getting there,” the cleric said.

Asked what gave him such assurance, Bakare simply retorted: “We are close to the rage of the poor. Look at the number of young people, who benefit now from the proceeds of crime instead of hard work. Kidnappers are Nigerians, though they may have external collaborators.

“But what else will you give them to do? An idle man’s hand is devil’s workshop. They have to survive. Now, if we get to the tipping point when the people say they cannot endure it anymore, it will be difficult to escape their rage. Look at Hong Kong. Look at how it was sustained. There is no government that can survive that.”

The cleric said because the government “has the monopoly of violence, a lot of Nigerians are chicken-hearted. They do not want any hardship or inconvenience. But this will continue forever. When you have some daredevil human rights advocates like Gani Fawehinmi and Beko Ransome-Kuti, these young people will follow them .”

He, specifically, said it was not difficult to bring those op pressing Nigerians down, lamenting that what “is helping them is the philosophy that if you cannot beat them, join them. But the day you join, you cannot beat anymore. But God will still have a remnant. Look at the history of the nations on earth. Ours is not peculiar.”

On Osinbajo’s travail, Bakare dismissed reports that he was penciled down to replace the vice president following attempts by some powerful forces to edge him out.