Fact Check: Does Tunde Bakare Hear From God?

The Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Tunde Bakare, seems to have stirred the hornet’s nest by his latest ‘prophecy’ this time concerning himself; “In my study around 4am on Sunday morning, God told me ‘you cannot bring your political career to a close; there is still more to do. Run for the Presidency. I will do it at the appointed time,” the pastor said.

Pastor Bakare who was vice presidential candidate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011election against Goodluck Jonathan is not new to controversies.

Before his latest crystal ball seeing, he had taken aim at Vice President Yemi Osinbajo when Buhari was on his extended medical leave to the U.K.

He had said then, “the king may be cold” and “may need warmth, but the final authority is still in his hands…

“The next in line does not translate automatically to the next king. I kept quiet since because I know the day I will speak, all arrows will begin to fly, but guess what? I’m beyond the enemy’s reach.

“What is happening in Nigeria is not new, it’s not strange, but if you don’t have the wherewithal, and your wife is in intense labour, you will panic.

“What is happening in this nation is not new, it’s not strange; our nation is going through birth pangs, Nigeria is in intense labour.

“It appears that the Nigeria of our dreams is in protracted labour.

“Our president who I believe is on the path to sure recovery has recently been serving the nation he loves with diminishing energy due to his ill health.

“As a result of the president’s present condition, all over the land, Absaloms and Adonijahs are springing up. Again this is not unusual.”

Absaloms, he said “embraces everyone and warm their hearts into the minds of the simple and gullible till they steal the heart of all men”.

But Adonjahs confuse birthright with leadership rights, and “assume that the next in line is automatically the next king, whenever the current king is no more”.

Long before his latest revelation, Pastor Bakare has had a few hits and a handful of misses. The WHISTLER recaps on some of them:

The vision is to be plainly publicised so that “… he may run who reads it,” he had said prior to his planned exile in 1993 during the heat of the annulment of the election believed to have been won by late Moshood Abiola 1999.

“Is there no old man in MKO’s house to restrain him because once he begins, he will not come out alive?” Bakare declared.

M.K.O. Abiola would go on to languish in prison for daring to declare himself elected President of Nigeria and died in questionable circumstances at the end of it.

Before then, in April 1993, Bakare had shockingly prophesied that neither the Social Democratic Party (SDP) nor the National Republican Convention (NRC) will attain political power.

He declared, “SDP will fail, be cut off and swallowed up. The military will fall. Verdict ’93: Our God reigns”.

Eleven days after the June 12 presidential election, General Ibrahim Babangida, then Military President, annulled the election.

In June that same year, Pastor Bakare shared a vision God showed him during a church service at the church. He saw, “two pieces of meat hanged by a tiny thread with labels on them. One piece was labeled SDP; the other was labeled NRC. Then a fat cat dressed in the camouflage uniform of the Nigerian Army came and swallowed up both of them. Then came an arrow from heaven and pierced the cat.”

He explained that IBB would step down but the cat that was coming would annihilate the political structures. Nobody would be able to remove the cat but an arrow from heaven would pierce him through.

When General Sani Abacha took over the rein of governance in Nigeria, Dr. Bakare declared according to the revelation of God to him that the character of the new ruler is represented in Psalm 36.

Psalm 36:1-4 reads:

1 I have a message from God in my heart
concerning the sinfulness of the wicked.

[b] There is no fear of God
before their eyes.

2 In their own eyes they flatter themselves
too much to detect or hate their sin.

3 The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful;
they fail to act wisely or do good.

4 Even on their beds they plot evil;
they commit themselves to a sinful course
and do not reject what is wrong.

1995
On the Sokoto Caliphate

In Pastor Bakare’s words: “1995 is the year of the unprecedented humiliation of the Sokoto caliphate. Its influence in the sociopolitical setup of Nigeria will not only wane, it will die. This (the then) Sultan will not be there by the end of the year”.

The following year, Abacha the Maximum Ruler will deposed Ibrahim Dasuki as the Sultan of Sokoto.

On The Destiny Of Abacha’s Transition Programme

Bakare had this to say: “In an open vision, I saw over thirty political heavyweights jostling for the presidency of the country. Even with their money, manipulators set in to tamper with election results, which brought in confusion into the whole process. Three ugly things will characterize the transition programme – betrayals, deception and intrigues while the gullible and the desperate will have their political career terribly shattered”. The most disastrous of the entire programme according to Dr. Tunde Bakare was that, “the gullible and the desperate will have their political past and future sidetracked, and many of them will be kept permanently in the tunnel.”

1997
On the alleged coup of December 1997, Dr. Bakare prophesied after death sentence had been passed on the alleged coupists by the trial tribunal and the nation was expecting their execution thus: “just before the killer will kill, he himself shall be killed – expect the night-before miracle”

So it came to pass that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Oladipo Diya and those accused of the Phantom Coup of 1995 were the hangman’s noose as Abacha died in 1998.

Dr Bakare had shared with the congregation a vision early 1998 in which he saw General Abacha dying in the midst of two foreign women.

Afterwards, he declared ceaselessly that, “The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, Abacha, your time is up”.

During the same period, at a Conference of Prophetic and Apostolic Churches (COPAC) in Kano, Pastor. Bakare prophesied that, “it was not the first time that the corpse of a head of state would be brought to Kano for burial and it would not be the last. And that the city of Kano should expect the corpse of another Head of State” Abacha died in the early hours of June 8, 1998.

According to the prophecy – the cat was pierced through by the arrow from above- The end of a tyrannical rule.

On Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar

Pastor Bakare declared to the nation. Thus saith the Lord; “Abubakar is Saul.

“If General Abubakar will yield to God and serve according to the will of God, he will become the midwife who will be instrument to the birth of David. Through him, a new nation will emerge. But if he has the fear of death and continues as he has said with programme of General Abacha, he will fall with his armour bearers”.

Abubakar will go on to carry out the transition that will usher in Obasanjo as president in 1999.

On Obasanjo as president

On March 7, 1999, the following the election of General Olusegun Obasanjo as president, Pastor. Bakare raised the “voice of the Spirit” saying, “in a vision, I eavesdropped on the conversation going on in the Heaven. I saw Jesus on the throne called the seat of the Governor and the subject they were discussing was Nigeria. This was what came out of the lips of the Lord:

“Rejoice not oh land, or your joy will be temporary. For I am bringing the nation – Nigeria, the rulers, the priests and the prophets there to my threshing floor. I will judge Saul and his comrades, and after I have finished my purging, then I will restore to you permanent joy.

“Obasanjo is not your messiah. He is King Agag and the prophetic axe will fall upon his head before May 29.”

And I asked. “Lord. How are you going to judge Saul and what has he done?”

God said, “I sent him on an assignment to overtake, to recover, to demolish but he didn’t. He spared the fat calves, he spared the big sheep and he brought Agag back to Jerusalem. I will judge Saul and his comrades and after I have finished my purging, then your joy will be permanent.”

His prophecy came to nought as Obasanjo was not only sworn in but completed two terms of four years each.

2001
In a Sunday service on June 3 2001, Pastor Bakare thundered: “Son of man, announce to those who will hear, declare my word to those who will listen, proclaim to all what I am about to do: Vacancy! Vacancy!! Vacancy!!!” says the Spirit of the Lord

“The sound of rejoicing and the sound of wailing in your nation will manifest at the same time. I will suddenly remove and take away the princes I have not chosen and the prophets I did not send. There shall be a vacuum for a moment and there shall be order in a little while, and I will bring princes to power and my prophet shall hear my word. I will no longer hide myself from your people. And the sound of rejoicing shall envelope the nation” says the Spirit of the Lord.

Alas, again the “word from the altar came to nothing.

2006

Again, Bakare flopped on October 2, 2006 when he said, “Let me tell you the truth by the spirit of God, neither (President Olusegun Obasanjo), OBJ, Atiku (Abubakar), IBB and this tall one, (Muhammadu) Buhari are part of the new. They are part of the old that is decaying. That old one is passing away. The new is emerging and these ones are not part of that new.”

2007

Part of his prophecies for that year was the Lord “anointing of Deborah upon the Police Force. Concerning the state of insecurity in Nigeria, I see the rise of a Super Cop. This Super Cop was a woman of great influence and authority.”

However, there was no female super cop!