Founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Dr. Tunde Bakare, says he is facing intense pressure from political heavyweights to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC), but has firmly ruled out any plans to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party he helped establish.
Bakare made the disclosure on Saturday at the maiden edition of the Citadel School of Governance Dialogue Series themed “Nigeria at 65: Historical Reflections, Futuristic Projection,” held in Oregun, Lagos.
According to the cleric and former presidential aspirant, several influential political stakeholders, including a former governor and a former minister from the South-West, have repeatedly urged him to align with the ADC.
“There has been a lot of pressure on me from who is who to join ADC. They come to my home. Even while I was abroad, the hierarchy of that party kept calling, saying they needed my voice,” Bakare revealed.
He added that one of his younger political associates, who previously held key positions under the APC, had also asked him to lend his influence to strengthen the ADC.
Despite the pressure, Bakare dismissed the possibility of joining the party, stressing his loyalty to the APC and warning against political divisions reminiscent of the historical Awolowo–Akintola crisis that fractured the South-West in the First Republic.
“I am not going to take part in ADC. The last time I heard about ADC was about a plane that crashed. I wish them well, because we need a robust opposition. But you don’t birth a child called APC and then try to kill it yourself. We are not going to have another Awolowo–Akintola crisis in the South-West,” he stated.
Bakare, who played a key role in the formation of the APC, also described the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as a product of divine will.
“If God wants to remove ‘emilokan,’ He knows how to do it. You can’t get the kind of thing Tinubu has brought without God’s support,” he said, in apparent reference to Tinubu’s popular campaign mantra meaning “it’s my turn.”
During the event, guest speaker Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, identified corruption and tribalism as Nigeria’s most deep-rooted problems.
“The two problems our country faces are corruption and tribalism. If there is a way of eradicating these two evils, we will be alright. Corruption is the father or mother of tribalism. If the money being stolen was available for development, Nigeria would be far better,” Osuntokun said.
He further argued that the ethnicity of the president should not determine development outcomes, noting that governance, not identity, improves the lives of citizens.
“The fact that Tinubu is president does not automatically improve the life of an average Yoruba man, just as an Igbo presidency will not improve the life of the ordinary Igbo man if there is no development,” he added.
Bakare’s comments come amid rising political realignments ahead of the 2027 elections, with the ADC emerging as a potential rallying point for opposition forces.
