Chief Convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has passed a vote of no confidence on President Goodluck Jonathan, saying he is an under performer. Bakare, who is also the Pastor, Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, spoke with Daily Sun in Abuja.
Excerpts:

State of the nation We must give thanks to God that we still remain a nation after all. We should go before God in a heart of gratitude for helping us in the midst of these myriads of problems.

Nigeria is imploding. The bomb blasts, the kidnappings, the massive corruption, the army of jobless youths, infrastructural decay and decline, and all kinds of vicissitudes of life that have befallen Nigerians. They are all by-products of planless, clueless leadership that has characterized the government of the PDP, especially in the last four years. If there is anything at all, Nigeria should rise up and take their destiny in their hands. This time around, let every Nigerian of voting age come out and register. Let them choose candidates that they know are credible, that have the antecedents of credibility and integrity, so that we don’t end up in the same mess after 2011.

Will Nigeria disintegrate in no distant time? The way it is going, with this lopsided federal system, with the republic that is not a true republic, you are playing with disintegration. In fact, you might be pushing it to the extreme when you talk of extinction. But God Almighty who puts Nigeria together, is able to hold it. Nigeria must be delivered from the grips of those who are in power for self and not for service and who have a sense of entitlement to the leadership of this nation.

If Nigeria belongs to us all, then every Nigerian must be free to aspire to the highest office in the land. The way it is now, there are warlords already beating war drums that if it does not go their way, they will rather sink the ship of their party or they will bring about violent change because others have made peaceful change impossible. All those are drums of war being beaten by those who are losing out, but Nigeria belongs to us all. I am of the considered opinion that God has a reason for putting Nigeria together.

My desire is to see Nigeria’s fulfilled destiny, but Nigeria must be restructured in order for that to happen and there must be a peoples’ constitution as against imposed constitution by the military upon us. Until then, those who are saying Nigeria will disintegrate have a reason to say so. But we all must work to ensure that it does not disintegrate. It will be a total chaos if Nigeria disintegrates or any crisis erupts in this nation that will force us to flee and become refugees. We will overwhelm West Africa. God forbids evil. I do not pray that Nigeria should disintegrate. I desire for it to be united, to be strong and to fulfill its destiny in the Comity of Nations.

[b]What makes the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) tick?[/b]Save Nigeria Group is a child of necessity and in the throes of death, President Yar’Adua abandoned the ship. The cabal hijacked power and began to exercise executive authority that was not given to them. It was like in that situation, we had a president, who had no kidney and we had a vice president, who had no balls. But this time around, through the Doctrine of Necessity, they brought him to power.

Honestly, if I have my way, the best for this country today is for President Goodluck Jonathan to make up his mind to conduct a free, fair, credible and peaceful elections, to use his executive powers to lay the foundation against the time to come. He will go down in history as a man of honour. If all these cluelessness and planlessness and greed for power continue, he will go down to the dustbin of history. That, once upon a time, there was a president, who had the greatest opportunity but who blew it.

SNG was a child of necessity in the throes of crisis. We rose to the occasion to ensure that we enforce constitutionalism. By the grace of God, we have taken it beyond that child of necessity. It is maturing to ensure that social mobility is not frozen any more in our country. To unblock the minds of Nigerians, to let them know that sovereignty belongs to them and not to those in government and finally. To ensure that they can exercise their rights of vote to choose candidates of their choice. After all, government that is good government is only there for one purpose: the welfare of the people of the nation.

Toughest situations SNG had to face[/b]All situations in Nigeria are tough. The toughest so far is to see that the same recycled, the same good for nothing, self-centered, self-serving people are still the ones we are parading around with the fewest exceptions. We want to be in a situation to point in the direction that the nation should go and candidates to vote for. SNG is an amalgam of so many other organizations. Some are serious, some are not too serious.

We are whittling down all these things so that SNG can have its own distinct identity. Those who believe in change and those who desire for this country to fulfill her destiny and to be removed from just being a country with great potentials, to become a truly great nation. Those are the ones we will work with and collaborate with. We trust that in the days to come, the difference will be clear to all that we are not going to compromise the values and the vision that we set up when SNG began.

[b]Visit to Aso Rock There is nothing to it. We went there to present our position paper to him (Jonathan). They tried to give us money, we said thanks, but no, thanks, take your money back. Whatever they made out of that is between them and the Press they leaked it to. We stand erect by the grace of God, untainted.

[b]Are you satisfied with his administration?[/b]No, not at all. I am not satisfied. Not in the least and Nigerians are not satisfied. He has underperformed. I do not think we can trust him with the leadership of this nation in 2011. He has grossly underperformed, he has goofed in so many instances. He is yet to correct his stand that Sovereign National Conference is 96 years late. I am yet to see the publication he promised when we met with him; that he goofed and he is going to correct that. He has not made a public declaration that in future we can trust him for a proper restructuring.

Not only that, the culture of impunity that we rose up to fight against, has permeated the length and breadth of Nigeria. In Bauchi State, there are two deputy governors. In Ogun State, there are two deputy speakers and two speakers of the House. This same culture of impunity has continued and he had appointed the governors of such states as his whatever for his election.

He has appointed them as his coordinators for his election in South-West and North-West. No, he has grossly underperformed and he has not demonstrated the capacity to lead a complex nation like Nigeria. We definitely need change. As a matter of fact, PDP has done enough. We must have progressives as they call them. They must come together, although they themselves are not serious. They are all birds of the same feather flocking in the same direction. We will not allow him to ruin the nation even if he wants to.

[b]Muhammadu Buhari presidency: Is he the best for the job?[/b]For now, he is the only one I have seen. If you have any other who has the antecedent, the integrity, the credibility, you can make up your mind and tell the whole world who you think can save this looting that is going on in our nation. Who has the moral will to stop all the religious crises and bomb blasts.
I know they hang him that he is a Sharia fundamentalist. But don’t forget he was the one who rose up and said, stop wasting government’s money on Hajj and all those pilgrimages.

They are private things; individuals should seek their God in their own way and government’s money should not be wasted. Remember it was not him who took us to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He is a devoted Muslim just the way I am a devoted Christian. Everyman approaches his God the way he chooses. We are in the boat of Jonah where everybody is calling upon his God. The true God we know and the false gods are all there. But nonetheless, he is the one that I have seen that has the credibility, that has the integrity and that has the will and the forthrightness to bring discipline and order back into a corrupt society.

He is not the only Nigerian that we expect to team up and bring this to a glorious conclusion in 2011. The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) alone cannot win the election. Buhari alone cannot win the election. Men of goodwill must team up. The best of the North, the best of the South, must come together to stir this ship up the iceberg that this titanic called PDP is about to heat and sink the entire nation if need be. But by God’s grace, it will not happen. My assessment of Buhari as a person has nothing to do with any desire to run for any elective office. I am not interested.

[b]My zoning philosophy[/b]I believe in zoning. My own philosophy of zoning is that the best of the North, the best of the South, the best of the East and the best of the West, must come together to rescue our nation. East, West, North and South, only the best is good enough for Nigeria. That is my zoning philosophy. Not all these northern face, Islamic face and Christian face. We need Nigerians who have the capacity, capability, mental alertness to stir the affairs of our country. Who understand economic principles and can revolutionize our nation, economically and otherwise. Not these men who do not know their left from their right. Whose credentials, including educational credentials, must be examined because the way they are functioning, it does not look like they went to school.

INEC, free and fair elections[/b]I have met with Prof. Attahiru Jega in his capacity as INEC Chairman. Before he came in, he was known to be a radical and a man of integrity. I hope he will still keep his integrity intact before he leaves.
The signs are not clear that there will be a free, fair and credible election. At SNG or my personal opinion I should say right now is, don’t trust Jega but give him the benefit of the doubt. He has started giving a kind of signal as to where we are going, that we should not expect a perfect election. Nobody is expecting a perfect election. We are expecting a free, fair and credible election and we will not be convinced about that.

[b]Hope for Nigeria There is hope for Nigeria if Nigerians