Only total deregulation and diversification of the economy as well as devolution of constitutional powers can bring about true change in Nigeria, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly has said.
Bakare gave the verdict while delivering a speech entitled: “Road Map to Successful Change” in the auditorium of the LRA on January 10, 2015.
“Let it be known that in spite of the rejection of our pre-election call for a transition period, Nigeria is now a nation in transition. This transition period will predictably be followed by a revolution which will, in turn, be followed by a reformation that will eventually usher in the desired transformation of our nation.
“A key outcome of this process will be the emergence of a true People’s Constitution that will facilitate national integration and provide a suitable governmental framework for the Nigeria of our dreams – a truly federal state with such powers vested exclusively on the federal government as are necessary to firmly and prosperously knit together the federating units upon which residual powers shall be vested.”
Bakare urged President Muhammadu Buhari “not to ignore the report of the 2014 National Conference! God went ahead of you to provide a navigational map with which you can begin to steer the ship of state to a safe destination. The APC may have refused to participate in the 2014 National Conference, but the report of that conference is completely in tandem with the promise of the APC manifesto”.
The APC manifesto and the report of the 2014 National Conference, the pastor said, “are a tag team in waiting, not a thesis and antithesis. (So) the Buhari-led government should embrace the report of the 2014 National Conference. That report may have been produced under a PDP government but it is not a PDP document. It is a Nigerian people’s document. All the delegates to the 2014 National Conference, East, West, North, and South endorsed the report”.
Bakare identified four areas where the change that would transform the country would start from. According to him, “we need to change our way of thinking; we need to change our governance structure. The present system is severely wasteful; we need to change our grund norm (constitution) by creating a true federal system of government; we need to change our cash-and-carry judicial and legislative systems.”
He explained that his public advocacy is motivated by love of God and the country as well as the strong desire to see a Nigeria that works in his life time. “Let me for the sake of posterity state clearly here that I am not an agent of any individual and, up till today, whatever I have done for any government, past or present, publicly or behind the scenes, I have done pro bono,” he concluded.
By Dike Onwuamaeze