2023: Presidency Shoots Down Bakare’s Request To Buhari To Handpick Successor

Pastor Tunde Bakare’s request asking President Muhammadu Buhari to endorse a candidate to succeed him in the 2023 presidential election has been rejected by the presidency. 

Bakare, who is the senior pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, had during a sermon at his church asked Buhari to emulate the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa by “positioning” his likely successor before leaving office. 

The cleric, who is eyeing the presidency in 2023, made the call about a week after paying Buhari a visit at the presidential villa, Abuja.

“We must also learn from Nelson Mandela who stepped aside after one term, but not without positioning the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa,” Bakare had said.

“Therefore, even as we build institutions of democratic governance, a key responsibility that history has bestowed on President Muhammadu Buhari at this turning point in our journey to nationhood is to institutionalise systems of accurate succession that will build and sustain the Nigeria we desire. This is a task that must be done,” he added. 

But responding during his appearance on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’ on Monday, Buhari’s media adviser, Femi Adesina, said the president will not manipulate the process to pick a successor.

“By May 2023 God willing he would have finished his second term as president, he would not have stood for another term and he will be exiting. So, he has that at the back of his mind.

“Pastor Bakare said he should be interested in who succeeds him, yes I’m sure the president will be interested in who succeeds him but he would not manipulate the process, to pick a successor.

“The president will not pick a successor. We know him, he is not somebody like that. Will he be interested in the process? Yes, he will. He will ensure that there is a free, fair and credible election; that nobody will come to use money and resources to bamboozle his way into the leadership of the country. It will not happen. The president will ensure free, fair and credible process; but to handpick a successor? No, he will not do that.”

Adesina added that his principal would not hand “Nigeria over to those who will take her back or hand Nigeria over to looters once again.

“No, that will not happen,” he said, adding that, “One thing that is clear is that the president will do whatever is needful before the next set of general elections. Early enough is relative but the president will do whatever is needful.”