Tunde Bakare warns ’emilokan’ presidency will lead to dictatorship

Tunde Bakare, lead pastor of Citadel Global Community Church, has condemned the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Tinubu’s ’emi lokan’ politics as “bad” and potentially dictatorial.

In an infamous outburst in June 2022, before APC primaries, Mr Tinubu, said “emi lokan,” a Yoruba word meaning “it’s turn.” The former Lagos governor used the expression to underscore his entitlement to the APC presidential ticket, having helped others, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Dapo Abiodun achieve their present political offices.

In his Sunday sermon, however, Mr Bakare said, “This ’emi lo kan’ politics that insists on one’s turn, even if circumstances do not align, is bad. Politics of entitlement also manifests as perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve, but to gratify long-time personal ambitions.”

He pointed out that 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,” noting that “politicians with a sense of entitlement evade political debates; they do not consider it imperative to communicate with the electorate.”

Mr Bakare, a loser in the APC presidential primary, added, “Entitlement politics will breed an imperial presidency that is distant from the people and has no sense of responsibility or accountability to the people. Such imperial governance will slide towards dictatorship and will be intolerant of dissent.”

Mr Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi of Labour Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria People’s Party are among candidates contesting in the February 25 presidential race.