PROPHESY: Did Tunde Bakare Foresee Buhari 7 Years Ago?

About seven years ago, 2011 to be precise, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly was quoted to have predicted the coming of “a dictator” who will emerge president to fix Nigeria.

Bakare, it was gathered, made the prediction in a sermon titled “The Prophet as a Sign to the Nation” during a Sunday service on July 11, 2011.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves a largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidate promising the most from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policies and is always followed by a dictatorship,” the pastor was quoted to have said, borrowing the words of Professor Alexander Tyler.

According to Nigerian daily newspaper, P.M News, Bakare had said that the dictatorial inclination of former Ghanaian President, Jerry Rawlings, would be minute if compared to the autocratic nature of the person he prophesied about.

In view of the aforesaid, this medium refreshes your memory on some allegations of dictatorship levelled against President Muhammadu Buhari at different points by some prominent individuals and groups.

– Buhari is a dictator: Mbazulike Amaechi –

Amaechi, a first republic minister of mviation, had said of President Buhari: “Nigeria is practicing dictatorship. Of all the military heads of state, it’s only Buhari that overthrew a democratic government. Other dictators overthrew military regimes. He is still a dictator. I have been saying it.

“He may have come in through a democratic regime but there is no difference between Buhari the dictator and Buhari the President. Whether he is wearing khaki or agbada, he is the same. Nigerians must fight to regain the country.

“Amongst all those who fought for the independence of Nigeria, I’m the only one still alive and I urge all the political parties to come together and eschew dictatorship in the country.

“We cannot continue like this because what is happening now has not happened in Nigeria before where institutions of democracy like the legislature and the judiciary are being trampled upon. It is not something to keep quiet about. It is something Nigerians should fight to stop because it is dictatorship.”

– Buhari’s flirtation with dictatorship shouldn’t be allowed: PDP –

Ahead of the recent visit of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to Nigeria, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had accused the president of having dictatorial antecedents.

“His (Buhari’s) recent declaration, at an event of the Nigerian Bar Association, that the rule of law will take second stage on issues involving alleged threat to national security, raises fresh concern about this administration’s attitude and respect for constitutional rule.

“At this critical moment in Nigeria’s political development we cannot afford to revert to the impunity of governance that characterised our military past. We, therefore, enjoin you, Madam Prime Minister, to use your immense clout to impress on President Buhari and his administration to immediately retreat from the path of authoritarianism and embrace the ideals associated with a democracy.

“Your intervention, at this time, will help Nigeria and indeed Africa to avert a looming crisis that will divide Nigeria along its emerging fault lines,” the PDP had said in a statement signed by its National Chairman, Uche Secondus.

– Buhari A ‘Reformed Dictator’: The Guardian UK –

British daily newspaper, The Guardian UK, had in a March 31, 2015 article described President Buhari as a ‘‘reformed dictator’’, saying the “former military dictator and political prisoner who once waged a draconian “war against indiscipline” but now insists he is a born-again democrat.’’

– Buhari ‘most brutal dictator’ after Abacha: Wole Soyinka –

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, had in 2015 described President Buhari as the most brutal dictator after late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.

Soyinka told BBC in February 2015 that, “I didn’t exactly call him a devil, but of course I talked about dinning with the devil with a very long spoon, but he (Buhari), I didn’t even want to dine with him at all,” being his response when asked to clarify his stance on Buhari.

“After Abacha, he represented the most brutal face of military dictatorship, there’s no question at all about that,” said the Professor, adding that “I’ve got to the point whereby I look at the possibility of a genuine internal transformation with some individuals. I have been disappointed before, and we must always be ready to be disappointed again.”

Meanwhile, Buhari had in his 2015 lecture titled ‘Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in Africa: Nigeria’s Transition,’ at the Chatham House, London, described himself as a converted democrat.

“I have heard and read references to me as a former dictator in many respected British newspapers including the well regarded Economist. Let me say without sounding defensive that dictatorship goes with military rule, though some might be less dictatorial than others. I take responsibility for whatever happened under my watch,” he stated.

“I cannot change the past. But I can change the present and the future. So, before you is a former military ruler and a converted democrat who is ready to operate under democratic norms and is subjecting himself to the rigours of democratic elections for the fourth time,” he had said as the then presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in February 2015.