Renowned cleric and founder of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has disclosed that he is under mounting pressure from influential political figures to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a rising opposition coalition.
Speaking on Saturday during the inaugural edition of the Citadel School of Governance Dialogue Series in Lagos, Bakare revealed that despite persistent lobbying from both senior and emerging politicians, he has no intention of defecting to 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,” he said.
According to the cleric, those urging him to align with the ADC include a former governor, a former minister from the South-West, and a rising figure within the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, Bakare firmly ruled out any move away from the ruling party.
“I am not going to take part in ADC. The last time I knew 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 declared.
The cleric also described President Bola Tinubu’s emergence as divinely orchestrated, saying no one could achieve such without God’s backing.
“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 added.
Bakare, who vied for the APC presidential ticket in 2023 but lost to Tinubu, reaffirmed his loyalty to the ruling party while distancing himself from the ADC’s growing opposition movement.
His political involvement dates back to 2011, when he ran alongside Muhammadu Buhari as the vice-presidential candidate under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). The CPC later merged with other parties to form the APC in 2013, paving the way for Buhari’s eventual victory in 2015.
