Serving overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has warned Nigerians not to vote for politicians with a sense of entitlement.
Speaking on the state of the nation at his church yesterday in Lagos, Bakare warned that politics of entitlement manifests among perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve, but to gratify long-term personal ambitions.
He said the Nigerian presidency is not a reward for anyone’s lifetime of sacrifice to the nation.
Bakare said, “Emi lokan type of politics insists on one’s turn even if circumstances do not align. Politics of entitlement also manifests as perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve, but to gratify long-term personal ambitions.
“It could also manifest as insistence on a given political office as a reward for what one considers a lifetime of sacrifice to the nation.
“Politicians with a sense of entitlement evade political debates and do not consider it imperative to communicate with the electorate. Entitlement politics will breed an imperial presidency that is distant from the people and has no sense of responsibility or accountability to the people.’
He said, “Such imperial governance will slide towards dictatorship and will be intolerant of dissent. Entitlement politicians set low performance benchmarks for themselves when they secure power and are content with projecting molehills as mountains of achievement.”
The cleric who also contested the All Progressives Congress APC primary also warned Nigerians to avoid politicians that practice politics of division, deception, manipulation, merchandise, exploitation and politics of betrayal.
According to him, the politics of merchandise is practiced by politicians who buy delegates and candidates during primaries, purchase endorsements from power blocs and influencers during campaigns, and buy voters during elections.
Bakare noted that the governance that results from that kind of politics is characterised by a lack of accountability to citizens.
“When politicians get to power through vote buying, they do not think that they owe us, the citizens, any obligation. As a result, they have no business with us until the next elections. Fellow citizens, in 2023, we must reject political merchants and vote buyers,” he said.
