2019 presidency: Pastor Bakare names one alternative to Buhari, Atiku

The General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has named the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili, as the alternative to the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The politician cum pastor spoke yesterday in Lagos at a state of the nation address tagged: “The Prophetic Portrait of Nigeria in Her Later Days.”

The cleric, who refused to endorse any of the 73 presidential candidates, urged Nigerians to vote for the candidate that believes and follows nationhood.

Bakare, who is the convener of the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, noted that the country needed a uniting force.

Bakare, who was the 2011 presidential running mate to Buhari, singled out Ezekwesili, among the presidential contenders.

He said that her candidature gives him much hope for the near future.

He said, “Her [Ezekwesili] brilliance, experience, sacrificial service to our nation, antecedents at championing and executing pro-people and pro-good governance reforms, compassionate yet dogged belief in the Nigerian potential, and her faith in the God-ordained plan for Nigeria, are unmatched by any of the other new breed candidates.

“One thing is very clear in my mind: with her candidacy, no Nigerian can reasonably say after the election that there was no credible alternative to the status quo in 2019.”

Bakare said the country should approach the current matter involving the highest judicial officer of the land without bias, in the interest of justice and accountability.

He added, “Note, in addition, that the prosecutors must themselves operate in accordance with due process, with utmost respect for the independence of the judiciary, and in compliance with constitutional provisions on both substantive and procedural matters, knowing that two wrongs, no matter how seemingly well-intentioned, cannot make a right.”