A chieftain of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Chief Femi Okurounmu, has berated Pastor Tunde Bakare for asking President Muhammadu Buhari to choose his successor.
Chief Okurounmu warned that it was not the duty of an incumbent president to decide his successor, stressing that such a plan was aimed at destabilizing Nigeria’s democracy.
Pastor Bakare, the Serving Overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, had in a state of the nation broadcast asked Buhari to be involved in picking his successor in 2023.
Pastor Bakare, who also identified Nigeria’s real enemies, had warned of the possibility of looters taking over if the president did not deliberately plan and determine who his successor would be.
But, Chief Okurounmu warned Buhari against heeding such advice, stressing that it was the duty of Nigerians to decide their next president.
Speaking to journalists in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Afenifere chieftain urged the president to pack his loads at the end of his tenure and allow the people themselves to choose who they want as their next ruler.
Chief Okurounmu said: “I read through the whole so-called state of the nation broadcast. The only thing I agree with, in the statement is that Nigeria is rotten from top to bottom. His analysis of how rotten Nigeria is, is accurate.
“But when he then goes on to say that it is not by accident that Buhari is the president at this time, that God has put him in a place where he can restore Nigeria to a place where all of us can be proud to call ourselves Nigerians, I think he’s living in a fool’s paradise; because you cannot ask a man who is lame as your representative to come and run 100 metres dash when you know he cannot move.
“Our experience with Buhari in the last five years of his administration has shown Buhari to be the very opposite of the kind of man Bakare is asking Buhari to be. The man has shown himself to be the greatest divider that Nigeria has known in terms of being a leader.
“So, the kind of expectations that Tunde Bakare is now pretending or asking Buhari to do, he knows Buhari cannot do it. Now, he asks Buhari to put in place a succession plan. Number one, it is not the duty of the current president or incumbent president to determine his own successor because that is one of the things that destabilizes democracy.”